or  Tin-: 

University  of  California. 

Mrs.  SARAH  P.  WALSWORTH. 

Received  October,  i8g4. 


./Jc 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
AT    LOS  ANGELES 


OBSERVATIONS 


ON  VARIOUS 


PASSAGES  OF  SCRIPTURE 


PLACING    THEM    IS    A    NEW    LIGHT; 


ASCERTAINING 

THE  MEANING  OF  SEVERAL,  NOT  DETERMINABLE  BY  THE  METHODS 
COMMONLY  MADE  USE  OF  BY  THE  LEARNED  ; 

ORIGINALLY     COMPILED 


Rev.  THOxMAS  HARMER, 

FROM 

RELATIONS  INCIDENTALLY  MENTIONED  IN  BOOKS  OF  VOYAGES 
AND   TRAVELS   INTO  THE  EAST. 

IN  FOUR  VOLUMES. 

VOL.  I. 

FIRST    AMERICAN,    FROM    THE    FOURTH 

LONDON    EDITION. 

WITH     A    XEW    AaaANGEMENT,    MANY    IMPORTANT     ADDITIONS, 
AND  INNUMERABLE   CORRECTIONS, 

By  ADAM  CLARKE,  L.L.D. 

{rapellimar  autem  Natura,  ut  prodcsse  velimns  quamplurimis  imprlmUque  doccndu, 

Itaquc  Don  facile  et  invenire,  qui  quod  sciat  ipse, non  tradat  altiri. 

Ciu.  do  FiD.  lib.  iii. 

CHARLESTSWN  : 
PRINTED   AND   PUBX.1SHED    BY    S.   ETHEKIDGE,    JB. 


3 


> 


o 

]  i 

-4-^  dJL  o 


5i 


CONTENTS 


;e. 


OP   THE    FIRST    VOLUME. 

<s,       PsEFACE  to  Hie  fourth  edition        -  .  -  ix 

^       Preface  by  the  original  compiler,  to  the  first  edition  of  the  two  first 
M  volumes  .  .  -  xiv 

*-^       His  advertisement  concerning  the  second  edition  of  the  two  first  vol- 
umes -  ...  XXV 
His  preface  to  the  first  edition  of  the  two  additional  volumes                  xxx 
Advertisement  to  the  short  account  of  Mr.  Harmer                                  xxxv 
Character  of  Mr.  Harmer,  by  Dr.  Syraonds                                             xxxv} 

!£*       Brief  Memoirs  of  the  Life,  Character,  and  Writings  of  Mr.  Harmer  xxxviii 

CO  ° 

c^       A  short  specimen  of  the  advantage  that  may  be  derived  from  books 

of  travels  into  the  east,  for  illustrating  the  Greek  and  Roman 

__^  classics,  as  also  Jp^ephus  and  Jerom. 

,_~^      Observation  i.  Of  the  manner  in  which  the  body  was  prepared 

'-^  for  interment  -  -  -  xlii 

n.  Of  sleeping  in  the  porch  of  the  tent  xlv 

III.  On  the  meaning  of  the  expression,  talking  about  an  oak  or 

a  rock,  as  used  by  Homer  -  -  xlviii 

IV.  Criticism  on  a  remarkable  passage  in  ihe  rudens  of  Plautus         liii 

V.  Curious  illustration  of  a  passage  in  Tibullus  Ivi 

>•  VI.  Of  the  murrine  cups  used  by  the  ancients  Ivii 

J  VII.  On  Horace's  opinion  of  the  excellence  of  the  flesh  of  those 

^  goats  which  were  fed  on  vines  -  -  Ixi 

fg         VIII.  On  the  greasy  water  mentioned  by  Horace,  sat.  lib.  2,  verse 

liJ  68, 69  -  -  -  -  Ixii 

"  jx.  A  curious  illustration  of  a  passage  in  Persius  Ixiv 

U  X.  Of  the  earthenware  boats,  which  Juvenal  is  supposed  to  as- 

■^  cribe  to  the  Egyptians  -  -  -  Ixx 

XI.  Of  the  eagle  which  appeared,  according  to  Suetonius,  in 

the  army  of  the  emperor  Vitellius  Ixxiii 

XII.  Warriors  slept  in  their  tents,  with  a  spear  stuck  in  the 

ground  at  their  head.  ...         ixxv 

XIII.  Illustration  of  a  passage  in  the  book  of  Judges,  taken  from 

Josephus,  and  Doubdan's  travels  ...         Ixxvi 

XIV.  Of  the  clothing  of  the  wild  Arabs  from  St.  Jeroni  Ixxvii 

XV.  Of  the  millet  bread  used  in  the  east  -  -       Ixxix 

A  short  specimen  of  the   advantage  that  may  be  derived  from  the 

Greek  and  Roman  Classics  for  the  explanation  of  various  passages 

in  the  sacred  writings. 


►  *.  > 


It  contents. 

Obs.  Page. 

I.  Herod's  jealousy,  mentioned  Matt.  ii.  3,  illustrated  by  quo- 
tations from  Suetonius  and  Tacitus  -  -  Ixxxi 

II.  The  prophecy  relative  to  John  Baptist,  Isai.  xl.   3,  fulfilled 
Matt.  iii.  3,  illustrated  by  a  quotation  from  Diodorus  Siculus  Ixxxii 

III.  Matt  vi.  r,  illustrated  by  quotations  from  Suidas  and  Ter- 

ence ....         Ixxxiv 

Iv.  A  beautiful  illustration  of  Matt.  xiii.  12,  and  Luke  viii.  18, 

taken  from  different  Greek  and  Latin  writers  -        -    Ixxxv 

V.  The  nature  of  the  Roman  census,  referred  to,  Luke  ii.  1-5, 

from  Dionysius  Halicarnassensis        -  -  Ixxxviii 

VI.  Case  of  the  demoniac,  mentioned  Luke  ix.  39,  illustrated 

by  quotations  from  Herodotus  and  Virgil  -  lxxxi.\: 

vll.  Matt.  vii.  3,  illustrntcd  by  a  quotation  from  Horace  xci 

vlll.  An  important  saying  of  our  blessed  Lord,  Matt.  x.  39,  illus- 
trated by  a  pas.iage  in  Juvenal  -  -  Xcii 
Ix.  An  illustration  of  the  terra  bosom,  used  by  St.  Luke,  chap. 

vi.  58;  with  a  curious  story  from  Herodotus  xciii 

X.  A  difficult  passage  in  the  gospel  of  St.  John,  explained  by 

a  quotation  from  Herodotus  -  -  Xciv 

CHAP.  L 

CONCERNING  THE  WEATHER  IN  THE  HOLY  LAND.  97 

1.  Rain,  thunder,  lightning,  summer's  drought  in  the   Holy 

Land  -  -  -  -  100 

11.  Time  of  the  first  rains  in  Judea  -  -  102 

111.  Origin  of  the  custom  of  pouring  out  water  at  the  feast  of 

tabernacles  ....  106 

Iv.  Of  thunder  showers  in  Judea,  with  an  illustration  of!  Sara. 

xii.  16— 18  -  -  -  -  112 

V.  Methotl  of  watering  their  grounds  in  the  east  -  -  114 

vl.  Time  of  ploughing  and  sowing  in  Barbavy  and  Judea  IIT 

vll.  Of  the  winds  at  Aleppo,  and  in  the  Holy  Land  ibid 

vlll.  Very  small  clouds,  the   forerunners  of  violent  storms  and 

hurricanes  -  -  -  -  119 

Ix.  Time  of  the  vintage  and  olive  gathering  -  -  120 

X.  Nature  of  summers  and  wintei-s  in  the  Holy  Land  -  12,3 

xl.  Severity  of  the  cold  in  winter  -  -  125 

xll.  The  subject  continued,  witli  a  further  account  of  the  rains  in 

the  East            -                    -                     -                    -  123 
xlll.  Manner  in  whicli  the  Copts  spend  their  leisure  time,  illus- 
tration of  Ezek.  xxxiii.  30                -                -                -  1S\ 
xlv.  Time  of  lighting  and  discontinuing  their  fires  135 
XV.  Coldness  of  the  spring  and  summer  nights,  v/itli  an  account 

of  their  clothing  -  -  -  137 

xvl.  Severity  of  the  eastern  winters,  frost,  rain,  hue.  comment  on 

Cant.  ii.  11,  12,  13  -  -  -  139 

xvll.  Days  iiitensely  liot,  succeeded  by  excessive  cold  nights  142 

svlll.  Eastern  earlier  thsn  western  springs  •  -  li^ 


CONTENTS.  ▼ 

Obs.  Page. 

xlx.  Violentinncdations  frequent  in  the  East  •  147 

XX.  Time  of  the  early  and  latter  rains  -  149 

xxl.  Time  of  harvest,  and  necessity  of  the  latter  rains  to  bring  it 

to  maturity  -  -  -     154 

xxll.  Times  of  drought-curious  procession  of  the  christians  at  Si- 
don,  to  obtain  rain  -  -  -        157 
xxlll.  Scarcely  any  rain  in  Egypt— famine  in  the  days  of  Ahab  161 
xxlv.  Whirlwinds  often  precede  rain,  and  raise  immense  clouds  of 

sand  -  -  164 

XXV.  Whirlwinds  usually  come  from  the  south— Of  the  pestilential 

wind  called  sammiel  -  -  165 

xxvl.  Effects  of  violent  rains  on  the  mud  buildings  168 

xxvll.  Of  cold  and  hot  winds  -  •  169 

xxvlll.  Further  particulars  of  the  hot  winds  172 

xxlx.  Frequent  lightnings  in  autumn  at  Aleppo  174 

XXX.  Extracts  from  curious  calendars,  shewing  the  times  vhen  dif- 
ferent fruits  ripen  -  -  175 
XKxl.  The  first,   or  early  rains,  fall  at  different  times  in  Jadea,  in 

Barbary,  and  at  Aleppo  -  '  178 

xxxll.  Application  of  the  foregoing  particulars  for  the  explanation 

of  various  texts  179 

xxxll  I.  Time  of  sheepshearing  in  the  Holy  Land  -  182 

xxxlv.  Autumnal  vegetation  in  the  East  185 

XXXV.  Intensely  cold  winds  and  abundance  of  snow  on   Mount 

Libanus,  in  the  spring  -  •  187 

CHAP.  II. 

CONCERNING    THEIR    LIVING    IN    TENTS. 

I.  General  observations  on  their  dwelling  in  tents  188 

11.  What  is  meant  by  houses  of  gold,  ivory,  fctc.  180 

111.  Of  Pavilions,  booths,  and  sleeping  under  the  shade  of  trees,  &c.  192 

Iv.  The  Turcomans,  and  their  manner  of  life  193 

V.  Of  the  Bedouin  Arabs,  and  their  manner  of  feeding  their  flockj  195 

vl.  Arabs  have  noplaces  of  shelter  for  their  cattle  by  night  197 

vll.  Of  the  Rechabites,  Barbary  Arabs,  and   itinerant  villages  of 

Moors  -  -  -  198 

vlll.  Robbing  the  seedsmen  when  sowing  their  corn  in  Palestine  200 
Ix.  Robbing  the  harvest — Sowing  different  kinds  of  grain  in  the 

winter                 -                            -                                  -  202 
X.  Arabs  lie  in  wait  for  travellers  and  caravans,  in  order  to  plun- 
der Ibem                          ...  207 
xl.  Arabs  ride  into  houses  in  order  to  rob  them  ibid 
xll.  Association  of  Arab  tribes,  in  order  to  defend   themselves, 

anil  annoy  pus3cnf!;ers  -  -  210 

\lll.  Sudden   decampments  of  the    Arabs,   and  retreat  into  the 

deserts  when  pursued  by  enemies  -  211 

\lv.  The  same  subject  continued,  and  of  the  manner  in  which 

the  Arabs  elude  their  pursuers  -  -  213 


^i  CONTENTS. 

Obs.  Pag«. 
XV.  The  same  subject  continued,  in  illustration  oflsa.lxiii.  13, 14    216 

XV 1.  Arab  tribes  frequently  spoil  each  other  222 
XVII.  Holes  and  caves  in  the  rocks,  frequent  places  of  lodging 
both  for  doves  and  fishermen — Of  consecrated  doves  and 

fishes                      -                      -                   .         -  226 
XVIII.  Caves  frequent  places  of  lodging  for  the  shepherds  in  tlie 

Holy  Land        ....               -  230 
XIX.  Pietro  della  Yalle's  carious  account  of  his  lodging  in  the 

woods  at  Mazenderan        -          -               -          -  232 
XX.  A  similar  curious  account  of  lodging  in  the  woods,  taken 

from  Dr.  Chandler        ....  234 

XXI.  Goat  skins  used  for  carpets  by  the  poorer  Arabs  236 

XXII.  Difierentkiads  of  Carpeting  used  in  the  East  237 

XXIII.  Feasts  in  the  Kast  on  occasion  of  sheepshearing  240 

XXIV.  Of  binding  sheep  in  order  to  shear  them,  an  illustratioa  of 

1  Sam.  XXV.  1,  8,  &cc.        -               -                -               •  241 
Kxv.  Precautions  taken  to  prevent  the  moving  sands  from  choak- 

ing  up  their  wells        ....  242 
XXVI.  The   same   subject  continued,  in  illustration  of  Gen.  xxix. 

1,  &c.          -               -               -                 -               -  243 

XXVII.  Strength  of  the  clans  belonging  to  the  Arab  emirs  244 

XXVI II.  Separate  tents  for  dififerent  branches  of  the  same  family  246 

XXIX.  Trade  carried  on  by  the  Arabs  in  cattle,  butter,  cheese,  8to.  248 

XXX.  Of  the  Turcomans,  and  their  immense  flocks  of  cattle  251 

XXXI.  Their  manner  of  pillaging  the  caravans        -               -  253 

xxxii.  Sudden  removes  of  the  Arabs  injurious  to  the  young  of  their 

flocks           -               -               -               -               .  ibid 

XXXII  I.  Of  the  difierent  domestic  utensils  of  the  Arabs  254 

xxx IV.  Bottles  made  of  skins,  used  in  the  East       -          -                -  256 

XXXV.  Smokiness  of  their  tents        -                -                    -  259 

xxxvl.  Of  the  black  colour  of  their  tents           -            .            -  260 

XXXVII.  Of  the  women's  division  of  the  tent        -                       -  266 

XXXVIII.  Arab  women  take  care  of  the  flocks               -               -  267 

XXX IX.  Regular  inhabitants  of  towns  and  villages  in  the  East  spend 

part  of  their  summers  abroad  under  tents  ibid 

XL.  The  same  subject  continued                ...  270 

XL  I.  Tents  used  for  religious  solemnities               -               .  273 

XLii.  Structure  of  the  Arab  tents               -               -           .  274 

XLill.  Of  their  huts  and  booths,  with  some  curious  particulars 

concerning  the  Tigris               ...  276 

CHAP.  in. 

CONCERNIKG    THEIR    CITIES,    HOUSES,  &C. 

Obs.  1.  Generalaccount  of  the  buildings  in  the  East  281 

11.  Of  their  stone,  and  mud  houses            ...  285 

111.  Houses  built  partly  of  stone,  and  partly  of  earth  and  straw  287 

Iv.  Method  of  cooling  their  apartments            -                        -  288 

V.  Of  the  narrowness  of  the  doors  of  the  enclosures  round 

their  houses                -                       -                        -  291 

vl.  Immense  stones  found  in  the  ancient  ruins  in  the  East  293 

vll.  Serpents  and  scorpiens  frequently  lodge  in  their  houses  294 


CONTENTS.  trU 

Obs.  Page* 

vlll.  Their  manner  of  sleeping  in  the  East,  •with  an  illustration 

of  Keel.  iv.  11 295 

Ix.  Of  their  sleeping  rooms,  time  of  reposing,  &c.  296 
X    Of  their  sleeping  on  the  tops  of  their  housed  298 
Xl.  Of  their  arbours  on  housetops              -            -                    -  300 
xl  I.  A  number  of  families  live  in  the  same  house  in  the  East  302 
Xlll.  Upper  rooms  the  most  Spleadid  in  the  eastern  houses  Ibid 
Xlv.  Curious   account  of  the  dift'erent   kinds  of  windows  men- 
tioned in  the  Scriptures            -            -                        -  303 
XV.  Of  the  materials  used  for  building  in  the  East  306 
xvl.  Of  the  mortar  used  in  building            ...  309 
xvU.  Of  brickkilns  in  the  East            .            .            -            .  310 
XTlll.  Method  of  fastening  the  pins  and  nails  in  the  mud  and 

brick  walls                .                       -                       -  311 

xlx.  Methods  of  adorning  their  houses  in  the  East  ibid 

XX.  Of  their  pavements,  ceilings,  8cc.            -                       •  314 

xxl.  Different  kinds  of  hangings  used  in  the  East  31* 

xxll.  Account  of  Belshazzar's  feast,  and  the  place  in  the  royal 

apartments  where  probably  held            -                        -  318 

xxll  1.  Vines  planted  even  within  their  houses            -                   -  321 

xxlv.  Alcoves  or  divans  used  in  their  buildings  325 
XXV.  Birds  mnke  their  nests  on  the  capitAls  of  pillars  in  forsaken 

temples,  palaces,  &c.                   -                   -               -  326 

sxvl .   Different  circumstances  in  the  ruin  of  Babylon  and  Nineveh  328 

xxvll.  Uses  to  which  ancient  ruins  are  converted  in  the  East  330 

XX  vlll.  Of  their  grottoes  and  caves               ...  382 

xxlx.  Of  their  ligrhts  used  in  the  East,  and  their  method  of  illumi- 

nnting  their  houses                    ...  S34 

XXX.  Of  the  walls  round  tbeir  dwellings                    -                -  337 

xxxl.  Method  of  securing  their  gates,  locks,  keys,  bars,  &o.  839 

xxxll.  Watchmen  employed  during  the  night  in  the  East  342 

xxxlll.  Why  Jerusalem  was  called  Ariel,  the  Lion  of  God  34S 
xxxlv.  Of  the  numbers  which  assembled  yearly  at  Jerusalem  dur- 
ing the  three  great  festivals,  and  of  the  caravans  which 

go  annually  to  Mecca                -            -                -            -  345 
rxxT.  Of  their  fireplaces,  chimnies,  method  of  roasting  their  meat, 

and  warming  their  apartments                    -                -  346 

xxrvl.  Of  their  acoommodat ions  at  their  public  festivals  349 

KxxvU.  Dogs  in  the  East  supported  by  public  charity             -            -  351 

Cxxvltl.  Of  their  dove  houses,  pigeons,  &c.                -                •  352 

xxxlx.  Tree*  and  plantations  Sbont  their  houses              -            -  354 

KL.  Of  their  castles,  towers,  gates,  &c.            -                    -            -  356 

XLl.  Curious   particulars  concerning  ancient  castles,   illustrating 

2  Kings  ix.  13              -                    -                    -            .  362 

t(.ll.  Of  their  winter  and  Btunmer  bouses          -                     '  365 


vUi  CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  IV. 


RELATING    TO    THE    DIET    OF    THE   INHABITANTS    OF    THE 
EASTERN   COUNTRIES. 

Page. 

Obs.  1.  Of  their  breakfasts  at  Aleppo  -  -  -  370 

11.  Of  their  meals,  early  rising,  &c.  -  -  372 

111.  Of  the  different  articles  used  for  food  -  -  37$ 

Iv.  Flesh  meat  sparingly  used  in  the  East  -  -        -  384 

V.  Different  kinds  of  highly  seasoned  dishes  -  -  385 

vl.  How  the  flesh  of  sacrifices  was  disposed  of  -  -  387 

vll.  Vinegar  and  oil  taken  with  bread  -  -  889 

vlll.  Of  furnishing  travellers  with  water  to  drink  390 

Ix.   Different  kinds  of  vegetables  on  which  the  poorer  sort  feed  393 

X.   What  is  generally  eaten  with  bread  to  make  it  palatable  397 

xl.  Curious  method  of  baking  bread  in  the  East  -  ^01 

xll.   Further  information  concerning  their  manner  of  baking  in 

the  East  -  .  -  406 

xl  11.  Of  the  eastern  seething  pot  ...  411 

xlv.  Curious  account  of  a~  royal  camel  feast,  and  the  manner  of 

seething  the  flesh  .  -  -  414 

XV.  Of  the  grinding  of  their  corn,  and  the  time  of  the  day  in 

which  it  is  done  -  -  -  *15 

xvl.  The  manner  of  leavening  their  bread  -  -  418 

xvll.  Method  of  churning  in  the  East,  and  of  treading  grapes  and 

olives  -  -  -  -  -ilS 

xvl  11.  Of  their  cheese  in  the  East  •  .  -  425 

xlx.    Milk,  a  general  diet  in  the  East  -  '  42S 

XX.  Different  articles  of  fuel  in  the  East  •  -  ibid 

xxl.  Method  of  saving  fuel  •  -  43 S 

xxll.  Bakers  and  bakehouses  in  the  East  -  •  439 

xxlU.  Various  preparations  of  corn  for  food  440 

xxlv.  The  manner  of  preserving  their  corn  445 

XXV.  The  manner  of  sowing  their  corn  446 

xzTl.  The  method  of  preserriog  their  figs  447 


PREFACE 


TO    THE    FOURTH    EDITION'.  "^ 

The  following  work  having  become  exceedingly  scarce,  I 
Was  requested,  about  two  years  ago,  to  prepare  a  new  editioli 
for  the  press.  Two  reasons  induced  me  willingly  to  undertake 
this  task,  1.  A  conviction  of  the  great  utility  of  the  work  ;  and 
2.  the  possibility  of  improving  it,  so  that  it  might  better  answer 
its  original  design. 

In  reference  to  this  intended  improvement,  I  had  already 
made  some  considerable  collections  of  additional  materials,  to 
be  arranged  under  the  same  heads ;  and  had  corrected  many 
things  in  the  former  edition. 

To  make  the  work  more  worthy  of  the  patronage  by  which  it 
had  been  honoured,  I  judged  it  necessary  to  make  a  new  ar- 
rangement of  its  materials ;  for  as  the  four  volumes  were  pub- 
lished at  two  different  times,  and  the  two  last  under  the  same 
arrangement  as  the  two  former,  giving  crft/i/fojza/ information  on 
the  same  subjects,  I  saw  it  necessary  to  amalgamate  ihe  Jlrsi 
with  the  t/ii7'd,  and  the  second  with  tht/ourt/i.  This  I  found 
an  extremely  difficult  task,  as  multitudes  of  the  Obsei'vaiions 
had  to  be  variously  transposed  to  bring  them  into  connexion  with 
those  of  a  similar  denomination,  without  which  a  heterogeneous 
mixture  must  have  been  the  consequence.  With  this,  both  the 
Printer  and  myself  were  often  puzzled ;  and  notwithstanding 
all  the  care  that  has  been  taken,  I  have  observed  a  few  that  have 
got  out  of  their  proper  places ;  and  probably  the  reader  may  find 
out  more. 

Though  the  language  of  Mr.  Harmer  is  generally  plain  and 
sufficiently  perspicuous,  yet  it  must  be  allowed  to  be,  upon  th« 

•  Ttvo  editions  were  published  by  Mr.  Harmer  ;  the  third  was  printed 
last  year  on  nearly  a  similar  plan  with  the  present,  but  the  whole  of  it  was 
destroyed  by  a  fire  in  the  printing-office.  Tfilhhfuw-t/i  tditiou  many  vs(N> 
aable  materials  ara  added  that  were  not  in  the  preceding. 

VOL.  I,  3 


X  PREFACE  to  THE 

whole,  rather  inelegant.  But  as  his  materials  were  drawn  from 
a  multitude  of  sources,  and  the  accounts  given  in  the  words  of 
the  authors  quoted,  this  was  inevitable,  as  much  inequality  in 
the  style  and  manner  of  these  different  authors  must  necessarily 
prevail.  This  could  not  have  been  remedied  in  the  present 
edition,  unless  the  whole  work  had  been  rewritten.  I  have 
however  corrected  the  language  and  punctuation,  I  may  safely 
say,  in  some  thousands  of  places ;  which,  however  they  may 
minister  to  the  greater  correctness  and  perspicuity  of  the  work 
in  general,  will  be  utterly  imperceptible  to  any  reader  who  does 
not  compare,  word  for  word,  the  former  with  the  present  edi- 
tion :  a  labour  which  no  man  who  sets  any  value  upon  time,  will 
ever  undertake. 

About  the  time  I  began  this  work,  fortunately  the  two  first 
volumes  of  the  former  edition,  once  the  property  of  the  late  Dr. 
Russell,  fell  into  my  hands.  These  I  found  to  contain  a  great 
number  of  valuable  notes  written  in  the  margin  with  his  own 
hand,  generally  confirming  and  further  elucidating  the  Obser- 
vations of  Mr.  Harmer.  Dr.  Russell  had  i'cad  Mr.  H's  work 
with  great  attention,  had  reconsidered  not  only  the  facts  for  which 
he  was  quoted  by  Mr.  H.  but  hkewise  the  general  tenor  of  the 
work ;  and  from  his  long  and  extensive  acquaintance  with  the 
natural  history,  customs,  manners,  Sec.  of  the  East,  and  liis  rev- 
erence for  the  Sacred  Writings,  he  was  qualified  beyond  most, 
to  cast  light  upon  every  subject  discussed  in  the  Observations. 
His  invaluable,  though  short  remarks,  I  have  taken  care  to  in- 
troduce in  their  proper  places,  referring  them  always  to  their 
author.  For  this  part  of  my  work,  I  doubt  not,  I  shall  have  the 
thanks  of  all  my  readers. 

Besides  what  I  have  inserted  from  Dr.  Russell's  MS.  notes, 
I  have  introduced  many  important  matters  from  Dr.  Shaw, 
which  Mr.  Harmer  had  professedly  left  untouched,  from  the 
supposition  that  Shawns  Travels  were  in  the  hands  of  every 
reader  I  However  this  might  have  been  in  Mr.  H's  time,  I  can- 
not say  ;  but  at  present  the  work  is  very  scarce.,  and  very  dear. 
I  have  borrowed  also,  from  a  variety  of  authors,  who  are  referred 
to  in  the  Notes,  many  of  the  materials  with  which  I  have  en- 
deavoured to  enrich  this  edition.  Much  of  the  matter  concern- 
ing Egyfit  is  entirely  new ;  as  are  many  articles  in  the  depart- 
ment of  Miscellaneous  Matters.  These  have  been  chiefly  fur- 
nished by  ShaiVj  Sonnini,  Anquetil  du  Perron,  Bruce,  and  Dr- 


FOURTH  EDITION,  XI 

Buchanan's  Travels  in  the  Mysore.  From  Mr.  Jackson's 
Journey  overland  from  India,  I  have  also  collected  some  valua- 
ble materials. 

Among  Mr.  Harmer's  repeated  references  to  the  originals 
of  the  Scriptures,  it  was  only  in  very  rare  instances  that  a  word 
of  Hebrew  or  Greek  was  introduced  :  this  intolerable  deficien- 
cy I  have  supplied  by  introducing  the  original  words  wherever 
they  are  referred  to ;  and  often  adding  further  proofs  and  illus- 
trations. To  render  this  part  of  the  work  in  some  measure  in- 
teresting to  the  unlearned  reader,  I  have  taken  care  to  put  the 
Hebrew  word  in  italic  characters,  and  have  given  the  orthogra- 
phy in  general,  according  to  the  masoretic  Jioints. 

In  not  a  few  places  I  have  given  appropriate  quotations  from 
Arabic  and  Persian  authors,  when  the  subjects  discussed  requir- 
ed this  kind  of  collateral  evidence.  Testimonies  from  such 
writers  in  reference  to  the  customs  and  manners  of  their  own 
times  and  country,  must  be  considered  of  the  first  respectabili- 
ty. Had  I  not  been  much  sti'aitened  for  time,  through  a  great 
variety  of  other  avocations,  such  quotations  would  have  been 
much  more  abundant ;  but  I  could  do  but  little  comparatively 
in  this  way,  as  I  was  obliged  to  comfiose,  from  my  own  types? 
every  thing  I  introduced  from  these  languages,  as  the  printers 
had  no  founts  of  Arabic  letter  during  the  time  this  work  was 
passing  through  the  press. 

As  Mr.  Harmcr  had  referred  in  several  places  of  his  Obser- 
vations on  Egypt,  to  the  famous  Prenestine  Pavement,  I  thought 
it  proper  to  introduce  a  correct  outline  of  this  piece  of  antiquity, 
with  its  description  taken  partly  from  Father  Montfaucon,  and 
partly  from  Dr.  Shaw.  This /j/a^f  and  its  description,  iorm  a. 
valuable  appendage  to  the  present  edition. 

After  the  whole  of  this  labour  had  been  performed,  and  the 
four  volumes  entirely  printed  off,  the  Index  and  one  sheet  ex- 
cepted, every  copy  of  the  edition  was  consumed  by  a  fire,  which 
totally  destroyed  the  printing  office,  and  left  not  one  wreck  be- 
hind. I  was  obliged  therefore  to  begin  the  work  anew,  and  had 
particularly  to  regret  the  loss  of  some  impoi'tant  materials  for 
the  concluding  sheets,  which  were  consumed  with  the  rest,  and 
of  which  I  had  no  du/ilicatc8.  I  have  now  once  more  brought 
the  work  to  a  close,  and  hope  it  will  in  some  measure  merit  the 
approbation,  and  meet  with  the  patronage  of  the  public.  Of 
the  work  itself,  my  opinion  may  be  seen  in  the  painful  labour  of 


iil  PREFACE  TO  THE 

arranging,  correcting,  improving,  and  editing,  AVhich  I  have  so 
long  sustained.  A  deep  conviction  of  its  great  importance  and 
worth,  led  me  to  undertake  the  task  at  first :  and,  when  baffled 
in  my  hopes  by  a  wise,  but  inscrutable  Providence,  a  continu- 
ance of  the  same  conviction  led  me  to  resume  this  task,  and  pa- 
tiently plod  once  more  to  its  end. 

Of  the  delay  and  the  _^re,  however  prejudicial  to  the  Editor 
and  Proprietors,  the  Public  will  have  little  cause  to  complain ; 
as  this  last  edition  has  been  greatly  improved,  not  only  by  further 
corrections  and  numerous  notes,  but,  1.  hy  a.  head  of  contents 
to  each  obserxmtion  ;  2.  a  short  specimen  of  the  advantage  that 
may  be  derived  from  the  Greek  and  Roman  Classics  for  the 
explanation  of  various  passages  in  the  Sacred  Writings ;  and 
3.  a  copious  table  of  the  contents  of  each  observation,  8cc. 
which  arc  entirely  original,  and  amount  in  the  whole  to  several 
additional  sheets. 

I  need  not  say  that  every  man  who  wishes  to  understand  the 
Scriptures  as  far  as  they  relate  to  oriental  customs  and  man- 
ners, or  who  professes  to  explain  them  to  others,  should  not  only 
possess  a  copy  of  this  work,  but  endeavour  thoroughly  to  under- 
stand its  contents.  Without  snch  a  work,  ninety-nine  out  of 
every  hundred  of  those  who  profess  to  teach  the  Church  of  God, 
must  remain,  in  many  important  respects,  ignorant  of  the  con- 
tents of  that  book,  which  alone  contains  the  science  of  salvation. 

I  have  sometimes  taken  the  liberty  to  dissent  from  Mr.  Har- 
mer,  for  which  I  have  given  my  reasons  in  the  proper  places. 
I  thought  it  better  to  do  this  than  to  expunge  what  I  deemed 
wrong  or  incorrect :  both  opinions  being  thus  brought  before 
the  reader,  he  is  left  to  judge  for  himself,  and  however  he  may 
determine,  cannot  compkxin  that  he  is  presented  with  a  mutilat- 
ed copy  of  the  original. 

To  my  own  tiotes,  I  have  subjoined  the  word  Edit,  to  dis- 
tinguish them  from  those  of  Mr.  Harmer ;  but  the  many  addi- 
tions I  have  made  to  the  tcx^t,  and  not  unfrequently  of  ivholc  Od- 
nervations,  I  have,  in  general,  left  undistinguished. 

I  have  endeavoured,  as  far  as  posjdble,  to  prevent  mistakes : 
those  the  candid  reader  may  find,  he  is  requested  to  excuse  and 
correct. 

It  will  probably  be  gratifying  to  many  readers  of  this  work 
to  learn,  that,  through  the  means  of  some  very  intelligent  and 
literary  friends  in  India,  I  have  instituted  a  number  of  inquiries 


FOURTH  EDITION.  Xiu 

relative  to  the  customs,  manners,  arts,  and  sciences,  referred  t» 
in  the  Sacred  Writings,  and  still  current  in  the  East,  as  ^vell  as 
to  the  other  subjects  treated  of  in  this  work,  from  which  I  may 
reasonably  expect  much  light,  and  much  important  matter  for 
at  least  one  additional  volume.  The  gentlemen  to  whom  I  re- 
fer, are  well  qualified  for  the  task  they  have  undertaken,  not 
only  from  their  extensive  acquaintance  with  India,  where  they 
have  resided  for  many  years,  but  also  from  their  thorough  knowl- 
edge of  the  principal  Asiatic  tongues. 

May  the  glorious  Author  of  that  Divine  Revelation,  which 
this  work  is  designed  to  illustrate,  accompany  it  with  his  bless- 
ing to  every  reader ! 

A.  CLARKE. 

Lo^jDON,  July  1 ,  1 808. 


PREFACE 


ORItlNAL  COMPILER  TO  THE  FIRST  EDITION  OF  THK 

TWO  FIRST  VOLUMES. 

Learned  men  have  often  employed  themselves  in  notbg 
dovpn  places  of  the  Greek  classics,  which  they  have  thought  ex- 
planatory of  passages  of  Scripture,  and  many  volumes  o{  obser- 
vations of  this  kind  have  been  published  to  the  world,  from 
whence  succeeding  commentators  have  taken  them,  and  placed 
them  in  their  writings;  but  modern  books  of  travels  and 
voyages,  which,  if  carefully  perused,  will  afford  as  many  obser- 
vations, as  curious,  and  as  useful,  have  not,  I  think,  been  treated 
after  this  manner.  An  attempt  then  of  the  kind,  which  ap- 
pears in  these  papers,  is,  so  far  as  I  know,  new,  and  as  such  will, 
I  hope,  be  received  by  the  public  with  approbation,  or  at  least 
with  candour. 

I  do  not  mean  in  speaking  this  to  say,  that  no  one  of  the  nu- 
merous writers  of  travels  into  the  East  ever  observed  the  con- 
formity between  some  of  their  present  customs,  and  certain  cor- 
responding passages  of  Scripture:  it  has  been  done  most  cer- 
tainly, and  the  resemblance  has  been  so  striking;  and  the  thing 
so  curious,  that  they  could  not  in  some  cases  well  avoid  taking 
notice  of  it ;  but  what  I  mean  is,  that  no  one,  that  I  know  of,  has 
set  himself /zur/ioseZy,  and  at  large,*  after  the  manner  of  those 
that  have  published  observations  on  the  ancient  Greek  writers, 
to  remark  these  resemblances :  an  infinite  number  almost,  of 
very  amusing  and  instructing  particulars  are  taken  no  notice  of; 
andthose/(?w  that  are  mentioned  are,  in  a  manner,  lost  amidst 
a  crowd  of  other  matters. 

•  This  was  certainly  done  by  Sir  J.  Chardin,  and  to  his  MS.  collection, 
%yhich  fell  into  the  hands  of  Mr.  Harmer  previous  to  the  publication  of  the 
second  editioa  of  the  two  first  voluwes,  the  work  is  greatly  indebted.  Edit. 


PREFACfe  TO  THE  FIRST  EDITION.  xv 

AdCouhts  of  countries,  very  remote  from  those  that  were  the 
scene  of  those  transactions  which  are  recorded  in  the  Bible,  may 
pour  some  light  over  particular  passages  of  Scripture,  in  the 
same  way,  as  Buchanan's  relation  of  the  manners  of  the  ancient 
inhabitants  of  Scotland  may  illustrate  some  circumstances  re- 
corded by  Homer,  whose  Iliad  speaks  of  Greek  and  Asiatic  he- 
roes ;  for  there  is  a  sameness  in  human  nature  every  vihere^  \}Xi- 
der  the  like  degree  ofuncultivatednessi  so  we  find  there  were 
no  professed  surgeons  in  old  Scotch  armies,  as  well  as  none  among 
those  of  the  Greek,  but  the  great  warriors  themselves  under- 
stood the  art  of  healing,  and  practised  it ;  and  this  skill  was 
reckoned  a  military  accomplishment.  The  examining,  howev- 
er, the  narratives  of  what  travellers  have  observed,  in  the  Holy 
Land  itself,  is  still  more  amusing,  and,  at  the  same  time,  may 
justly  be  supposed  to  be  more  instructive ;  since  many  of  their 
ancient  customs  remain  unaltered,  and  references  to  those  an- 
cient customs  appear  every  where  in  the  Scriptures. 

That  their  customs  in  genei'al  remain  unaltered,  on  which 
much  depends  in  the  following  papers,  is  a  fact  that  admits  of 
no  doubt :  indeed,  it  is  so  incontestable,  that  the  Baron  de  Mon- 
tesquieu, in  his  Spirit  of  Laws,  has  endeavoured  to  assign  a  nat- 
ural cause  for  it ;  and  whether  we  admit  his  explanations,  or 
not,  the  fact  cannot  be  denied.  A  multitude  of  writers  have 
mentioned  it,  and  as  a  thing  they  were  extremely  struck  with. 

The  traveller  who  has  given  us  the  greatest  entertainment  of 
this  kind,  of  any  that  I  have  met  with,  is  the  late  Dr.  Shaw,  in 
that  curious  and  useful  book  of  travels,  which  was  first  published 
in  folio  in  the  year  1738,  and  reprinted  nineteen  years  after  in 
quarto  with  some  alterations.  Yet  there  are  many  things  which 
he  has  omitted,  as  well  as  some  that  will  not  bear  a  close  exami- 
nation. Nor  are  his  omissions  at  all  to  be  wondered  at,  though 
he  was,  as  his  profession  obliged  him  to  be,  intimately  acquaint- 
ed with  the  Scriptures,  and  long  lived  in  the  East :  for  the  hu- 
man mind  is  naturally  very  much  limited  in  its  operations,  and 
cannot  well  pursue  different  things  at  once ;  and  consequently, 
as  his  thoughts  were  very  much  taken  up  in  illustrating  the 
classics,  in  adding  to  the  treasures  of  natural  knowledge,  and  in 
forming  dissertations  on  particular  points,  it  is  no  wonder  that  he 
did  not  observe,  that  many  things  that  he  saw,  and  some  that  he 
has  related,  tended  to  illustrate  passages  of  Scripture,  which  he 
had  no  particular  occasion  to  consider.    A  by-standcr  pays  him- 


XVI  PREFACE  TO  THE 

self  no  great  compliment,  in  supposing  he  has  remarked 
some  things  of  this  sort,  not  altogether  unworthy  of  notice, 
which  the  Doctor  is  silent  about,  for  a  much  less  discerning  eye 
than  that  of  such  an  author,  that  sets  itself  purposely,  and  re- 
peatedly, to  compare  every  occurrence  related  in  a  book  of 
travels,  with  what  he  can  recollect  of  the  Scriptures  that  may 
be  thought  analogous,  must  be  supposed  to  observe  various 
things  that  escaped  the  notice  of  the  other,  and  which,  for  much 
the  same  reasons,  must  escape  the  observation  of  those  that  read 
such  a  book  in  the  common  way. 

Dr.  Shaw,  however,  has  done  so  much  of  this  kind,  and  so 
happily  illustrated  such  a  number  of  Scriptures,  that  in  the  fol- 
lowing papers  I  shall  suppose  all  my  readers  are  acquainted 
with  his  writings,  and  shall  therefore  often  refer  to  him  without 
such  attending  explanations  as  might  be  requisite  in  another 
situation  ;  and,  at  the  same  time,  I  shall  purposely  avoid  every 
thing,  that  he  has  ex^iressly  remarked,  of  the  nature  of  the  en- 
suing Observations.*  I  shall  do  the  same  as  to  what  other  wri- 
ters of  voyages  have  taken  notice  of  in  the  same  way,  as  I  am 
limiting  myself  in  these  papers  to  things  they  have  incidentally ^ 
and  undesignedly  mentioned ;  though  a  collection  of  their  ob- 
servations might  be  useful,  as  books  of  this  kind  are  very  ex- 
pensive, and,  at  the  same  time,  extremely  numerous,  and  very 
many  want  to  ascertain  the  meaning  of  those  places  of  Scrip- 
ture they  have  illustrated,  who  may  have  no  opportunity  of  pe- 
rusing those  authors,  or  leisure  to  collect  together  things  that 
are  so  thinly  scattered.  But  however  useful  such  a  work  might 
be,  it  is  not  what  I  am  here  pursuing :  the  observations  and 
conjectures  I  propose  to  present  to  my  readers  have  not  been 
made  by  the  writers  I  have  used,  they  only  accidentally  mention 
the  circumstances  from  whence  I  have  deduced  them ;  nor  has 
any  other  author  proposed  the  same  thoughts  to  the  world,  so 
far  as  I  recollect ;  no  i  they  are  supfiosed  by  me  to  be  wew, 
othei^wise  I  had  not  published  them ;  though  amidst  such  a  mul- 
titude of  books  as  are  to  be  found  in  the  libraries  of  the  learned* 
it  is  very  difficult  to  say  in  many  points,  with  positiveness,  what 
rs  neiu.    A  man  not  unfrequently  fancies  himself  a  discoverer 

*  In  this  edition,  the  editor  has  availed  himself  liberally  of  Dr.  Shaw's 
collections  ;  first,  because  they  are  of  great  importance,  and,  secondly,  be- 
cause the  book  is  so  scarce  and  dear,  that  very  few  persons  can  have  the 
opportunity  of  consuUing  it.    Edit. 


FIRST  EDITIOI«f.  Xvit 

of  what  was  never  known  before,  when  it  afterward  appears 
that  more  than  one  have  said  the  same  thing  before  him.  The 
same  may  happen  to  me,  which,  however,  will  be  unhappy  if  it 
does,  as  novelty  is  the  chief  thing  to  recommend  these  Observa- 
tions ;  they  being  rather  of  the  curious  and  amusing  kind,  like 
most  of  those  made  by  critics  on  the  Greek  classics,  than  of  any 
great  importance. 

There  is  a  vast  number  of  books  of  travels,  which  might  be 
read  over  in  pursuing  such  a  design  as  that  I  have  been  form- 
ing :  it  may  not  be  improper  then  for  me  to  give  some  account 
of  those  /have  run  over,  leaving  it  toothers,  if  they  think  fit,  to 
examine  those  that  have  not  fallen  in  my  way. 

1 .  The  earliest  writers  of  this  sort,  which  have  furnished  me 
with  materials,  are  those  contained  in  that  collection,  entitled 
Gesta  dei  fier  Francos,  printed  at  Hanover,  in  the  year  1611. 
The  crusades,  which  began  in  the  close  of  the  eleventh  centu- 
ry, not  only  occasioned  much  greater  numbers,  of  the  inhabit- 
ants of  Europe,  to  visit  Palestine  than  had  been  usual  in  former 
times,  but  led  several,  that  were  present  at  those  transactions, 
to  publish  an  account  to  the  world  of  achievements  which  they 
considered  not  only  as  heroic,  but  as  sacred.  These  writers, 
which  are  thirteen  in  number,  in  the  first  tome,  besides  some 
other  papers,  and  two  in  the  second,  had  most  of  them  visited 
these  countries,  and  some  of  them  possessed  places  of  great  dis- 
tinction in  the  East. 

2.  Rawwolff,  a  German  physician,  though  he  lived  several  gen- 
erations after  the  writers  in  the  Gesta-  Dei  per  Francos,  is  the 
next  oldest  traveller  into  the  East  that  I  have  searched  into. 
He  has  mentioned  several  things  designedly  to  illustrate  the 
Scriptures,  and  commentators  have  adopted  some  of  his  re- 
marks ;*  but  besides  these,  he  has  mentioned  other  mattersj 
which  my  reader  will  see  might  have  been  applied  to  the  same 
use :  but  neither  did  RauwolfF  put  them  to  that  use ;  nor  have 
any  of  his  numerous  i-eaders  done  it,  that  I  know  of.  For  this 
reason  they  have  not  been  taken  any  notice  of  by  commentators, 
though  they  give  great  clearness  to  some  passages  which  they 
had  to  explain:  a  circumstance  that  sets  the  propriety  oi 
the  present  attempt  in  a  very  strong  light.  Rauwolff  set  out 
from  Augsburg,  in  his  travels  for  the  East,  in  May  1573:  his 

*  See  Patckk  on  (Jen.  xviii.  C,  &c. 
vol.  I.  3 


xviu  PREFACE  TO  THE 

Itinerary  was,  long  after  it  was  published,  translated  from  the 
High  Dutch,  and  makes  the  greatest  figure  in  the  collection  of 
curious  travels  and  voyages,  published  by  the  celebrated  Mr. 
Ray:  the  second  edition,  printed  in  170^,  of  this  work  of  Mr- 
Ray,  is  that  which  is  made  use  of  in  these  papers. 

3.  Sandys  is  the  next  in  order  of  time ;  he  travelled  over  these 
countries  in  the  reign  of  James  I.  My  citations  are  from  the 
sixth  edition  of  his  book,  printed  in  1 670. 

4.  The  other  voyagers  which  I  have  examined,  are,  Oleo' 
riua  in  French,  translated  and  airgmented  by  Wicquefort,  print- 
ed at  Amsterdam,  with  further  enlargements,  in  1727.  These 
editions  of  Wicquefort,  and  of  the  later  editor,  are  not  distin- 
guished from  the  original  of  Olearius;  by  which  means  I 
may  possibly  have  ascribed  to  Olearius  what  does  not  properly 
belong  to  him,  of  which  I  thought  it  was  right  to  give  my  reader 
this  notice. 

5.  Thevenott  published  at  London  in  English,  1687. 

6.  Sir  John  C/iardin,  London,  1 686. 

7.  Voyage  dans  la  Paleatineffait  fiar  ordre  du  Roi  Louis  XIV, 
taken  from  the  papers  of  Mons.  d'Arvieux,  who  was  the  person 
sent  to  the  camp  of  the  Great  Emir  of  the  Arabs  of  Mount  Car- 
mel,  and  published  by  de  la  Rogue.  A  very  curious  perform- 
ance, and  full  of  circumstances  tliat  throw  light  on  the  Scrip- 
tures. The  edition  I  made  use  of  was  that  of  Amsterdam^ 
1718. 

8.  Voyage  de  Syrie  and  du  mont  Liban^  a  Paris',  1722,  by  the 
same  de  la  Roque,  a  book  much  less  curious  than  the  last  that 
I  mentioned. 

9.  Voyages  de  Corneille  le  Bruyn  au  Levant^  qvariOy  a  la 
Hayej  1752.  The  descri/ition  de  VEgyfite^  a  Paris,  1735, 
drawn  up  in  the  form  of  letters  by  the  Abbot  Ic  Mascriery 
from  the  Memoirs  of  Mons.  de  Maillet,  who  resided  in  Egypt  a 
long  time,  as  consul  of  France.  A  book  drawn  up  with  con- 
siderable elegance;  but  by  no  means  remarkable  for  its  accura- 
cy, notwithstanding  the  many  insinuations  it  gives  us  of  its  au- 
thenticity, derived  from  the  quality  of  the  author  of  the  Memoirs. 
I  have,  however,  given  divers  extracts  from  it,  which  have 
been  the  longer,  because  it  has  never,  so  far  as  I  remember,  ap- 
peared in  English,  as  the  others  have. 

10.  The  Journal  from  Grand  Cairo  to  Mount  Sinai,  and  back 
again,  translated  from  the  manuscript,  written  by  the  Prefetto 


FIRST  EDITION.  xix 

of  Egypt,  in  company  with  the  missionaries  de  propaganda  fide 
at  Grand  Cairo,  &c.  octavo. 

11.  Travels  in  Egyfit  and  J^Pubia^  by  Frederick  Lewis  Nor- 
den,  F.R.S.  captain  of  the  Danish  navy,  published  by  the  com- 
mand of  the  King  of  Denmark,  and  translated  by  Dr.  Tem- 
pleman,  in  octavo,  London,  1757.  My  reader  will  not  find 
many  extracts  from  this  work ;  not  however  because  I  appre- 
hend it  has  little  value,  for  these  travels  are  justly  extremely 
celebrated,  but  merely  because  they  happen  not  to  contain  many 
materials  firofier  for  me. 

12.  To  these  are  to  be  added  Egmont's  and  Heyman's  Trav- 
els through  part  of  Europe^  Syria,  Palestine,  Egyfit,  and  Mount 
Sinai,  &c.  translated  from  the  Low  Dutch,  and  printed  for 
Davis  and  Reymers,  printers  to  the  Royal  Society,  1759  :  a 
book  from  which  I  have  quoted  several  particulars,  as  it  is  af- 
firmed by  the  writer,  that  he  mentioned  riothing  but  what  he  had 
himself  observed  i*  and  these  travellers  were  persons,  it  should 
seem,  of  consideration.  Van  Egmont  being  Envoy  Extraordinary 
from  the  United  Provinces  to  the  court  of  Naples,  and  Heyman 
professor  of  the  Oriental  languages  in  the  University  ofLeyden. 
The  translator  however  is  visibly  full  of  faults,  and  the  book  itself 
drawn  up  in  a  very  strange  manner.  There  is  not  so  much  as 
the  date  of  one  year  designedly  given  us,  through  the  whole 
work,  in  which  they  were  at  any  of  the  places  they  have  describe 
ed ;  on  the  contrary,  dates  seem  to  be  industriously  avoided,  and 
instead  of  a  proper  preface,  giving  an  account  of  the  authors,  and 
of  the  times  when  they  set  out  on  these  voyages,  half  of  it  is 
taken  up  by  a  harangue  of  no  consequence  at  all,  about  the  differ- 
ent objects  that  catch  the  attention  of  different  travellers,  and  the 
other  consists  of  as  loose  an  account  as  can  well  be  imagined  of 
the  authors,  and  of  the  work.  We  are  told  indeed  that  these  obser- 
vations were  made  in  two  visits  which  they  paid  these  countries ; 
and  that  in  the  first  tour  they  spent  nine  years,  and  in  the  second 

four  i\  but  we  are  not  told  when  either  of  them  began  or  ended, 
whether  they  made  these  voyages  together  or  apart,  or  which  of 
the  two  drew  up  the  account ;  though  the  author  expresses  him- 
self, perhaps,  more  than  is  common  in  writings  of  this  kind,  in 
the  first  person  singular.  Plowever  we  may,  possibly,  pretty 
well  supply  these  omissions,  by  laying  circumstances  together. 

•VoLi.  p.  61  fPref.  p.  6. 


XX  PREFACE  TO  THE 

When  it  is  said  in  the  Preface,  that  this  work  had  long  been  de- 
sired by  many  leai-ned  and  respectable  members  of  the  Univer- 
sity of  Leyden,  and  that  these  travellers  luei'e  well  known  by  the 
great  figure  they  made,  one  would  guess  that  these  voyages  were 
made  a  considerable  time  ago  ;  and  that  the  account  was  drawn 
up  by  him  that  was  a  member  of  the  University  ihy  Heyman. 
When  we  find  an  account  of  some  cruelties  exercised  on  the 
religious  of  Mount  Carmel,  in  the  year  1716,*  on  the  one  hand  ; 
and  on  the  ^other,  that  Antonio  Magliabechi  was  about  sixty, 
when  they,  or  one  of  them,  were  at  Florence,!  who  is  known 
to  have  been  born  in  October,  in  the  year  1633  ;  we  find  there 
must  have  been  a  considerable  interval  betwixt  the  first  of  these 
tours,  of  nine  years,  and  the  second  of  four.  When  that  visit  to 
Magliabechi  is  supposed  to  have  been  soon  after  the  first  tour 
was  undertaken,  and  that  the  Good  Friday,  just  before  that  visit, 
fell  on  the  ninth  of  Afiril,\  it  appeals  that  this  tour  must  have 
begun  in  the  close  of  the  year  1693,  and  that  they  landed  at 
Leghorn  in  the  following  April :  Good  Friday  being  on  the 
7iinth  of  Jfiril,  N.S.  that  year,  and  in  that  year  only,  for  a  consid- 
erable time  before  and  after ;  at  which  time  Magliabechi  was 
sixty  years  old,  and  about  six  months.  If  we  know  when  the 
tour  began,  and  that  it  took  up  nine  years,  we  know  what  time 
it  must  have  ended.  The  second  tour  must  have  commenced 
after  the  year  1711,  when  the  Czar  Peter  the  Great  was  in  such 
a  disadvantageous  situation  at  the  river  Pruth,  for  they  visited  at 
Scio  the  Chan  who  commanded  the  Crim  Tartars  at  that  time, 
and  who  had  been  in  exile  before  this  at  Rhodes  :||  on  the  other 
hand,  it  could  not  have  been  above  ten.,  or  twelve  years.,  one 
would  think,  after  that  event,  since  they  at  the  same  time  paid  a 
visit  to  a  son  of  this  Chan,  who  had  commanded  a  flying  camp 
of  twenty  thousand  Tartars,  under  his  father,  and  yet  was  then 
but  about  thirty  years  qfage.^  This  seems  to  be  confirmed  by 
the  date  of  the  Firman,  or  Imperial  Order,  which  they  obtained 
at  Constantinople,  to  enable  them  to  make  this  tour  with  greater 
advantage, which  is  dated  the  first  of  the  moon  Moharem,  1033  :*• 
for  if  we  suppose  an  error  only  in  the  second  figure,  which  cer- 
tainly  is  ivrong,  ^ince  the  Turkish  year  1033  answers  the  year 
of  our  Lord  1623;  then  1033  is  printed  by  mistake  for  1153, 
which  began  in  the  close  of  our  year  1720,  about  which  time,  it 

•Vol.  2.  p.  6.  tVol.l.  p.  43.  :i  See  p.  21,  and  22. 

IJ  Vol.  1.  p.  256,  257.  §  P.  259.  **  Vol.  J.  p.  23J. 


FIRST  EDITION.  XXI 

should  seem  by  other*  circumstances,  this  tour  began,  which 
took  four  years,  as  we  are  told  in  the  Preface.  The  writer  or  ed- 
itor might  have  some  particular  views  in  involving  his  account 
in  all  this  confusion ;  but  as  the  perplexity  was  very  disagreea- 
ble to  me,  I  have  been  ready  to  imagine  my  reader,  if  ever  he 
should  peruse  those  travels,  will  not  be  displeased  with  this  en- 
deavour to  ascertain,  with  a  tolerable  exactness,  the  time  of 
these  tours :  and  the  rather,  as  there  is  an  error  in  the  only 
date  of  a  year  which  is  given  us  in  the  whole  book,  and  given? 
I  believe,  without  reflecting  on  it ;  for  a  studied  care  to  con- 
ceal the  times  of  these  voyages,  seems  to  run  through  both  the 
volumes. 

13.  As  to  the  later  English  travels,  from  which  I  have  col- 
lected observations,  I  made  use  of  the  fifth  edition  of  Maundrell^ 
who  has  given  us  a  justly  admired  relation  of  his  journey,  from 
Aleppo  to  Jerusalem,  at  Easter,  A.D.  1697 ;  and, 

14.  The  fourth  edition  oi  Pitt's  Account  of  the  Religion  and 
Manners  of  the  Mahometans.^  printed  in  1738. 

li.  The  history  of  the  Piratical  States  of  Barbary,  by  a  gen- 
tleman that  resided  there  many  years  in  a  public  character, 
which  I  made  use  of,  was  printed  at  London,  in  1750. 

16.  My  reader  will  also  find  that  I  have  run  over  the  two 
volumes,  in  folio,  of  a  description  of  the  Eaat^  by  Dr.  Richard 
Pococke,  afterward  a  Rishofi  in  Ireland,  the  first  volume  prmted 
in  1743,  the  second  in  1758. 

17.  Dr.  Russell's  Mitural  History  of  Alefifio^  in  quarto  1756  ;t 
and  the  accounts  that  are  prefixed,  by  a  gentleman  of  great 
ingenuity,  to  those  copper  plates,  which  exhibit  so  noble  a  rep- 
resentation of  the  ruins  of  Palmyra  and  Balbec,  which  were 
given  to  the  public  within  a  few  years  past. 

These  are  all  the  books  of  this  kind  which  I  have  examined, 
with  any  thing  like  a  due  attention,  in  pursuing  the  design 
which  appears  in  these  papers :  here  and  there  a  quotation 
may  be  found  from  other  books  of  no  great  importance  ;  and 
one  or  two  from  Mr.  Hannvay's  Historical  account  of  the  British 
Trade  over  the  Caspian  Sea,  which  I  ran  over  in  a  cursory  man- 

*  These  circumstances  also  show,  that  it  was  at  Easter,  1721,  that  they 
were  at  Jerusalem  ;  and  the  summer  of  the  same  year  in  Egypt. 

t  In  almost  every  instance  I  have  consulted  Dr-  Russell's  work ;  an<l  from 
the  edition  published  by  his  brotiicr,  17y4,  2  vols,  4to.  the  quotations  in  this 
edilioD  aie  taken.     Edit. 


XXn  PREFACE  TO  THE 

ner,  before  I  thoroughly  engaged  in  these  disquisitions,  and  have 
not  since  returned  to  the  reading  those  volumes. 

But  l?esides  those  books  of  travels,  of  v?hich  I  have  been 
giving  a  list,  there  is  another  of  a  different  sort,  of  which  I  have 
made  a  good  deal  of  use,  and  which  therefore  ought  to  be  sub- 
joined to  tlie  rest,  and  that  is,  the  collections  of  Mons.d'Her- 
belot  from  the  Oi-iental  authors,  called  Bibliotheque  Orien- 
tale,  printed  at  Paris,  in  1697 :  a  book  too  well  known  among 
the  learned  to  need  any  further  account  of  it. 

There  are  many  observations,  without  doubt,  besides  those  I 
have  made,  that  may  be  collected  from  other  travellers,  which  I 
have  had  no  opportunity  of  perusing  ;  and  even  these  I  have 
not  examined  with  such  accuracy,  as  to  render  a  review  of  them 
by  others  useless ;  not  to  say,  there  are  many  other  things  that 
have  occurred  to  me  in  reading  them,  besides  those  I  have  set 
down,  which  I  have  chosen  to  pass  over  in  silence,  for  want  of 
sufficient  ^rm«ion  in  those  authors,  and  of  the  means  of  deter- 
mining those  matters  with  greater  exactness  from  other  ivriters, 
or  from  conversation  with  those  that  have  visited  these  coun- 
tries. 

An  opportunity  of  frequently  conversing  with  such,  could  not 
fail,  assuredly,  of  furnishing  the  curious  inquirer  with  many  fur- 
ther particulars,  and  the  tvant  of  such  an  aid  may  be  found  but 
too  sensibly  in  the  following  papers ;  there  is,  however,  on  the 
other  hand,  one  advantage  that  arises  from  this  want,  and  that  is, 
my  readers  are  more  effectually  secured,  than  they  might  other- 
wise be,  from  the  danger  of  being  imposed  upon  by  a  misunder- 
standing of  facts,  from  an  over-eagerness  to  accommodate  them 
to  such  interpretations  of  the  Scriptures,  as,  on  other  accounts, 
might  appear  probable.  Here  the  illustrations  that  are  propos- 
ed, are  given  us  without  any  design  of  this  nature,  so  nothing  of 
this  can  pi-oduce  any  misrepresentations  in  these  writers ;  the 
only  difficulty  to  the  collector  is,  not  to  overlook,  in  such  a 
mtdtitude  of  particulars,  those  circumstances  that  may  be  hap- 
pily applied  to  the  giving  light  to  obscure  passages. 

The  making  use  of  that  variety  of  authors,  which  I  have  giv- 
en an  account  of,  has  occasioned  what  may  a  little  perplex  some 
of  my  readers,  and  perhaps  give  disgust  to  more  :  I  mean  the 
orthographical  variations,  which  will  be  found  in  these  papers, 
such  as  Bashaiv,  Basha,  Basea,  Pasha,  Pacha,  which  are  differ- 
ent ways  of  spelling  the  title  of  a  great  Eastern  officer,  made 


FIRST  EDITION.  XXIIX 

Vise  of  by  the  different  authors,  of  which  I  have  been  giving  the 
catalogue ;  Sheck,  Shekh,  Sheik^  Cheikhy  are  in  like  manner  the 
words  they  make  use  of  to  denote  a  person  of  eminence  among 
the  Arabs ;  the  same  may  be  observed  in  other  cases.*  I  could 
not  avoid  this  in  the  extracts  I  have  given  from  these  travellers, 
if  I  give  them  with  exactness,  which  I  endeavoured  to  do ;  nor 
in  my  after  observations  without,  in  a  sort,  taking  upon  me  to 
decide  which  was  the  most  proper  way  of  forming  these,  and 
other  Eastern  names,  into  English  words,  which  I  by  no  means 
think  myself  qualified  to  do,  and  for  that  reason  I  generally,  if 
not  always,  make  use  of  those  terms  that  the  author  I  last  cited 
thought  fit  to  employ ;  my  speculations  relating  to  Eastern 
customs,  not  Eastern  terms,  and  the  manner  of  transfusing  them 
with  the  greatest  propriety  into  our  language. 

The  perusing  of  travels,  is,  to  most  people,  a  very  delightful 
kind  of  reading :  but  as  gentlemen  that  publish  accounts  of  this 
kind  to  the  world,  seldom  think  of  illustrating  the  Scriptures  ; 
as  those  that  have  made  observations  of  this  nature  content 
themselves  with  proposing  a  very  few  ;  as  large  collections  of 
these  writers  are  very  expensive ;  and,  after  all,  numbers  of 
useful  things  will  be  found  to  have  been  passed  over  in  silence 
by  them  all ;  and  as  most  readers  will  not  exercise  fiatience 
enough  to  make  these  discoveries  in  their  reading  authors  of 
this  sort ;  I  have  been  led  to  imagine,  that  the  publishing  some 
observations  of  this  kind,  and  especially  if  formed  into  a  regular 
series,  could  not  well  fail  of  being  acceptable  to  the  public,  if 
executed  in  any  tolerable  manner.  How  far  these  papers  an- 
swer such  an  idea,  I  must  leave  to  my  candid  and  goodnatured 
reader  to  determine.  I  have  at  least  endeavoured  to  obey  the 
precept  which  a  gentleman  in  elder  life,  to  whose  instructions  I 
paid  great  deference,  gave  me  at  my  first  setting  out  in  a  course 
of  studies  ;  Make  every  kind  of  study  fiay  its  contribution  to  the 
oracles  of  God. 

If  my  design  succeeds.  Commentators  will  not,  I  hope,  forth© 
future,  think  they  have  extended  their  inquiries  far  enough,  when 
they  examine  a  text  with  grammatical  nicety  ;  they  will,  along 
with  that,  pay  an  unbroken  attention  to  the  customs  of  the  Eastern 
peofile,  and  look  upon  this  additional  care  as  absolutely  necessary 

•  In  many  places  I  have  changed  the  orthography  in  the  above  words  > 
the  first  should  always  be  written  Patha,  the  second  Sheekh.  Many  other 
words  I  have  also  brought  much  nearer  to  their  originals.    Edit. 


XXIV  PREFACE  TO  THE  FIRST  EDITION. 

to  make  a  good  commentator.  A  deplorable  want  of  which 
the  judicious  reade"  will,  with  indignation,  find  in  many  com- 
mentaries of  name,  and  that  where  their  authors  lived  in  these 
veiy  countries,  who,  by  being  on  the  spot,  had  the  greatest  op- 
ponunities  to  have  n\ade  their  interpretations  much  more  com- 
plete and  accurate,  by  referring,  fvith  care^  to  the  natural  history 
of  those  places,  and  their  ancient  customs.  The  following  ob- 
servations will  show  that  St.  Jerom  is,  unhappily,  of  the  number 
of  these. 


;i> 


ADVERTISEMENT 


CONCERNING    THIS    SECOND    EDITION. '^^ 

The  bookseller  being  desirous  to  reprint  these  papers,  I 
have  communicated  to  him  several  additional  observations^  of  a 
like  kind  with  the  others,  which  have  occurred  to  me  since  the 
publication  of  the  fii-st  edition :  some  of  them  derived  from  au- 
thors before  consulted,  upon  an  after  reviewing  them  ;  but  most 
of  them  deduced  from  books  of  travels  which  I  had  not  then 
seen. 

Some  of  these  are  mentioned  in  the  Preface  to  the  Outlines 
of  a  new  Commentary  on  Solomon's  Song,  published  some  years 
after  my  Observations  :  Hasselquiat  in  particular,  a  celebrated 
Swedish  physician,  whose  travels  were  translated,  and  printed 
in  1766;  Busbequius.,  an  Imperial  ambassadox',  who  gave  the 
world  an  account  of  his  journey  into  the  East  about  two  hun- 
dred years  ago,  in  several  letters  ;  that  edition  that  I  made  use 
of  was  printed  at  Oxford,  in  1 660  ;  and  the  Letters  of  Lady 
Marij  Wortley  Montague,  third  edition,  printed  in  1763. 

Besides  these,  I  have  perused  a  Voyage  to  Mount  Libanus, 
by  the  Rev.  Father  Jerome  Dandini,  a  Nuncio  of  Pope  Clement 
VIII,  who  consequently  travelled  into  the  East  about  a  hundred 
and  seventy  years  ago  ;  this  was  translated  from  the  Italian,  and 
printed  in  1698;  Plaistead's  Journal  from  Calcutta  to  Busse- 
rah,  and  from  thence  across  the  great  desert  to  Aleppo,  8cc.  in 
the  year  1750,  second  edition,  1758;  a  View  of  the  Levant, 
particularly  of  Constantinople,  Syria,  Egypt,  and  Greece,  by 
Charles  Perry^  M.  D.  1743;  and  the  Travels  of  Mcxander 
Drummond,  Esq.  the  British  Consul  at  Aleppo,  through  sev- 
eral parts  of  Asia,  as  far  as  the  banks  of  the  Euphrates,  London, 
1754  ;  and  some  others,  which  I  need  not  distinctly  mention. 

The  abovementioned  writers  have  furnished  me  with  several 
particulars:  not  only  some  notes  of  consequence,  and  some  ad- 

•  i.e.  of  the  tvo /irst  \o]QmPs. 
vor.  1.  4 


XXVi  ADVERTISEMENT. 

ditional  clauses  in  the  text,  but  sonic  entire  observations.  But 
the  greatest  advantage  to  this  edition  are  those  additions  of  all 
the  various  kinds  I  have  been  mentioning,  which  have  been  fur- 
nished by  some  MS.  papers  of  the  late  Sir  John  C/iardin,  who 
resided  long  in  the  East,  was  a  very  curious  observer,  and  paid 
a  particular  attention  to  such  matters  as  might  serve  to  illustrate 
passages  of  Holy  Writ ;  which  led  him  to  make  many  observa- 
tions, very  much  resembling  those  that  were  heretofore  pub- 
lished in  this  work. 

There  are  six  small  MS.  volumes  of  Sir  John,  which  are 
still  in  being,  and  which  I  have  perused  on  this  occasion. 
They  are  referred  to  in  the  Preface  to  his  printed  travels,  in 
which  he  mentions  his  design  of  other  publications.  They  con- 
sist chiefly  of  memorandums,  written  with  the  negligence  and 
brevity  usual  to  papers  of  that  kind.  For  this  reason  I  have 
frequently  translated  them  in  a  looser  manner  than  I  have  done 
such  authors  as  had  finished  their  papers,  and  published  them 
to  the  world ;  but  I  have  been  as  careful  as  I  could  to  retain  his 
sentiments  with  exactness. 

His  observations  sometimes  give  a  new  turn  to  the  passages 
of  Scripture  which  he  is  endeavouring  to  elucidate  ;  but  oftener 
further  illustrate  and  confirm  the  explanations  that  are  to  be 
met  with  in  other  writers,  and  not  unfrequently  those  formerly 
published  in  this  work.  I  have  selected  those  that  seemed  at 
all  suited  to  the  intention  of  this  collection  of  mine ;  and  I  hope 
these  additions  will  give  a  considerable  degree  of  pleasure  to 
roy  readers. 

If  they  should,  the  public  ought  to  be  informed,  that  they  are 
indebted  for  such  instruction  and  pleasure  to  Sir  Philip  Mus- 
grave.  Baronet,  a  descendant  of  this  eminent  traveller,  and  the 
proprietor  of  these  MSS.  to  whom  I  some  time  ago  returned 
them.  And  I  beg  leave  in  this  public  manner  to  return  my 
thanks  to  that  gentleman,  for  granting  me  the  liberty  of  perus- 
ing these  papers,  and  for  the  permission  he  gave  me  of  publish- 
ing any  parts  of  them  that  I  should  select,  as  proper  to  be  in- 
troduced into  this  work. 

An  ingenious  and  benevolent  gentleman,  with  whom  I  was 
totally  unacquainted,  but  who  approved  of  this  manner  of  illus- 
trating the  Scriptures,  was  so  obliging  as  to  give  me  the  first 
notice  that  there  were  such  papers  in  being  ;  and  to  direct  me 


ADVERTISEMENT.  XXVII 

to  a  dignified  clergyman,  of  very  great  distinction,  both  in  the 
church  and  the  literary  world,  by  whose  means  I  might  hope  to 
obtain  a  sight  of  them.  This  eminent  personage  accordingly, 
though  a  perfect  stranger  to  me,  was  so  condescending  as  to 
employ  his  interest  with  Sir  Philip  Musgrave,  to  procure  me 
these  manuscripts.  This  favour,  which  I  should  in  any  circum- 
stance have  considered  as  very  great,  was  extremely  enhanced, 
by  the  speedy  and  very  complaisant  manner  in  which  he  con- 
ducted this  affair ;  but  I  am  not  allowed  to  mention  his  name, 
whose  favours  I  should  have  been  glad  to  have  distincthj  ac- 
knowledged with  the  deepest  gratitude. 

Some  of  my  readers  would  have  been  pleased,  very  possibly, 
with  the  publication  of  several  particulars  of  these  MSS.  con- 
sidered merely  as  detached  remarks  from  the  papers  of  an  emi- 
nent traveller ;  but  as  explaining  or  illustrating  several  passa- 
ges of  Scripture,  the  satisfaction,  I  persuade  myself,  as  to  many, 
will  be  considerably  augmented.  How  happy  would  it  be,  if 
gentlemen  of  figure  and  genius,  that  delight  in  travelling,  would 
more  frequently  direct  their  disquisitions  to  the  same  sacred  and 
elevated  purpose  ! 

The  letters  MS.  and  MSS.  are  well  known  to  be  abbreviations 
of  the  words  manuscri/it  and  manuscri/its.  My  readers  will 
easily  imagine,  when  ihey  find  these  abbreviations  with  the  let- 
ter C  joined  to  them,  that  they  point  out  the  papers  of  Sir 
John  Chardin. 

The  very  incorrect  manner  in  which  tlie  first  edition  of  this 
work  was  printed,  has  given  me  a  great  deal  of  uneasiness  :  I 
have  taken  considerable  pains  that  this  may  be  less  faulty,  as  to 
errors  of  the  press. 

The  additional  observations  of  course  occasion  many  of  the 
others  to  be  differently  numbered  from  what  they  were  in  the 
first  edition ;  but,  as  the  reader  may  possibly  sometimes  meet 
with  references  to  some  of  these  observations,  as  they  were  num- 
bered in  the  first  edition,  I  have  placed  those  numbers  in  the 
margin,  that  no  confusion  or  trouble  might  arise  from  these  al- 
terations, so  far  as  I  could  prevent  them.  I  have  also  included 
the  additional  observations  and  notes  in  [],  that  those  that  only 
chuse  to  examine  these  enlargements,  may  be  able  to  separate 
them,  without  trouble,  from  the  rest.* 

•  None  of  these  distinctions  is  preserved  in  the  present  edition,  it  bein]y 
entirely  useless,  as  the  double  series  used  in  Air.  Harmer's  editions,  is 
here  brought  under  one.  Edit. 


XXVIU  ADVERTiSEMENT. 

The  purchasers  of  the  first  edition  may  perhaps  be  inclined 
to  be  somewhat  uneasy  with  so  many  additions ;  but  those  that 
are  of  a  benevolent  spirit  will  be  willing,  I  persuade  myself,  to 
forgive  my  endeavouring  further  to  illustrate  these  matters,  re- 
ferred to  by  the  Sacred  Writers.  Those,  however,  that  pur- 
chase this  edition,  may  be  assured  I  shall  make  no  further  ad- 
ditions, if  the  candour  of  the  public  should  make  any  future  edi- 
tion wanted.  Should  any  thing  of  importance  hereafter  pre- 
sent itself,  I  should  rather  chuse  to  throw  such  matters  into  a 
separate  publication,  and,  perhaps,  into  some  different  form. 

I  cannot  help  afresh  expressing  my  wish,  at  the  close  of  this 
advertisement,  that  care  might  be  taken  to  send  proper  persons 
into  these  countries,  with  a  direct  view  to  illustrate  matters  of 
this  kind.  I  observed,  at  the  end  of  the  first  edition,  in  an  ad- 
vertisement there,  which  it  is  unnecessary  to  reprint  with  the 
rest,  that  the  learned  world  is  extremely  indebted  to  the  late 
King  of  Denmark,  for  his  readiness  to  gratify  the  curious  Mi- 
chaelis,  by  sending  a  number  of  academicians  into  the  East  for 
this  very  purpose  :  but  the  effort  has  not  had  all  the  success  that 
could  be  wished. 

Distinguished  by  many  other  advantages,  which  it  possesses, 
I  am  ambitious  that  my  native  country  should  distinguish  itself 
also  in  such  a  truly  laudable  pursuit.  Expeditions  to  the  South 
Seas,  and  even  to  Scotland,  have  furnished  many  objects  of 
great  curiosity,  and  may  answer  very  valuable  purposes,  with 
respect  to  matters  oi  learning  as  well  as  civil  life  ;  but  what  I  am 
now  wishing  for  would  be  attended  with  beneficial  consequences 
of  a  SACRED  nature. 

Justice,  however,  requires  me  to  observe,  that  Lieut.  Niebuhr, 
the  only  surviving  Danish  academician,  who  very  laudably  ex- 
tended his  cares  beyond  his  proper  department,  and  has  done 
all  he  could  to  retrieve  matters,  has  published  a  volume,  in  con- 
sequence of  this  expedition,  which  I  have  seen,  and  the  reader 
will  meet  with  some  remarks,  in  these  papers,  drawn  from  that 
work. 

A  learned  and  very  ingenious  friend  of  mine,*  who  has  resid- 
ed many  years  in  Holland,  has  also  lately  informed  me,  that 
Niebuhr  has  published  a  second  volume,  which  I  never  saw ; 
and  that  a  third  is  expected  veiy  soon,  containing  the  Journal  of 

*  The  Rev.  Mr.  Sowden,  of  Rotterdain. 


ADVERTISEMENT.  XXIX 

this  expedition.  He,  at  the  same  time,  obligingly  added,  that 
my  Observations  have  been  so  well  relished  by  the  literati  of  the 
continent,  that  they  have  been  translated  into  French,  and  some 
other  languages  of  those  countries:  this  is  throwing  an  honor 
on  these  Observations  which  I  had  no  expectation  of,  and  which, 
united  with  the  kind  reception  these  papers  have  met  with  at 
home,  abundantly  recompense  me  for  all  the  pains  and  expense, 
the  forming  this  collection  at  first,  and  the  enlarging  it  since, 
have  cost  me. 


Thomas  Harmeb. 


Watesfield,  near  Bury  St.  Edmund's, 
Suffolk,  Mg,  22,  1775. 


^=«if?»?iVAli 


MR.  HABMER*S  PREFACE 


FIRST  EDITION  OF   THE  TWO  ADDITIONAL  VOLUMES. 

The  public  received  the  two  preceding  volumes  of 
Observations  in  so  candid  a  manner,  that  I  have  been  in- 
duced to  publish  a  third  and  a  fourth  of  a  similar  nature. 

As  the  business  of  my  life  has  been  to  sludj  and  en- 
deavour to  illustrate  the  Scriptures,  as  well  as  to  press 
the  truths  contained  in  them  on  the  heart,  many  other 
Observations  have  risen  up  to  view,  in  looking  again  over 
the  books  I  had  before  examined,  as  well  as  in  perusing 
some  I  had  never  seen,  when  I  made  the  Observations 
before  published. 

Sir  Philip  MusgravCy  after  having  favoured  me  with 
the  perusal  of  Sir  John  Chardin's  manuscript  notes  on 
many  passages  of  Scripture,  most  obligingly  sent  me, 
after  the  two  first  volumes  of  my  Observations  appeared, 
the  three  tomes  of  his  Travels,  printed  in  French,  at 
Amsterdam,  iTll,  which  furnished  me  with  considerable 
additions,  inserted  in  the  third  and  fourth  volumes :  and  I 
cannot  but  make  my  very  grateful  acknowledgments  to 
Sir  Philip,  for  this  fresh  instance  of  goodness. 

A  very  eminent  member  of  the  University  of  Cam- 
bridge, obtained  for  me  Vinisauf's  account  of  the  expedi- 
tion of  King  Richard  I.  to  the  Holy  Land,  out  of  the 
University  library  ;  to  whom  also  I  acknowledge  myself 
highly  obliged,  for  this,  as  well  as  many  other  literary 
favours.  This  account  of  Vinisaufwas  published  in  Ihe 
second  volume  of  the  collection  o(  old  English  historians^ 
printed  at  Oxford,  in  1687. 


MR.  HARMER'S  PREFACE.  jiXXt 

Several  very  agreeable  remarks  were  communicated  to 
tne  by  a  verj  learned  and  ingenious  clergyman  of  the 
county  of  Suffolk,  mostly  indeed  relating  to  what  had 
been  published  in  the  two  first  volumes  ;  but  they  have 
furnished  some  materials  for  these  two  succeeding  ones. 
I  would  here  return  my  very  respectful  thanks  to  this 
gentleman,  and  am  sorry  I  am  not  at  liberty  distinctly  to 
mention  his  name. 

I  also  took  a  journey  to  London  some  time  ago,  ex- 
pressly for  the  purpose  of  conversing  with  two  persons 
on  matters  of  this  kind.  The  one  was  a  very  ingenious 
and  friendly  gentleman,  who  visited  the  East  in  17r4:* 
be  very  obligingly  read  over  to  me  that  part  of  his  Jour- 
nal which  related  to  the  Holy  Land,  and  also  communicat- 
ed some  other  matters  he  recollected,  about  which  I  in- 
quired, but  which  were  not  set  down  in  his  memorandums. 
The  other  was  Signior  Lusignan,  the  author  of  the  His- 
tory of  the  revolt  o(  AH  Bey,  of  which  the  second  edition, 
made  use  of  by  me,  was  printed  at  London,  1734,  who 
not  only  had  answered  several  queries  I  put  to  him  by 
letter,  but  had  assured  me  of  his  readiness  to  communi- 
cate any  further  eclaircissements  I  might  want,  in  con- 
versation, if  I  came  to  London,  which  he  could  not  so 
well  commit  to  writing,  being  a  foreigner.  This  prom- 
ise he  very  kindly  fulfilled ;  and  those  communications 
were  very  useful  to  settle  some  matters,  of  such  a  minute 
nature  as  not  to  be  met  with  in  books  of  travels,  but  of 
considerable  use  to  accomplish  what  I  had  in  view.  It 
gives  me  pleasure  to  think  that  my  native  country,  the 
land  of  liberty  and  generosity,  has  received  this  Eastern 
refugee  into  her  bosom,  who  appears  to  be  not  only  a  man 
of  ingenuity,  and  great  information  as  to  Oriental  matters, 
but  has,  I  apprehend,  the  honour  of  being  descended 
from  a  family,  of  which  one  wore  the  crown  of  the  Chris- 
tian kingdom  of  Jerusalem    some    centuries  ago,    and 

•  W.  BoyUton,  E»q.  of  London. 


xxxil  MR.  rtiiMER'S  PREFACE. 

others    hare    suffered   hardships  on    account  of  their 
attachment  to  the  faith  of  Jesus. "^ 

Besides  these  sources  of  information,  I  have  consulted 
a  variety  of  books,  as  I  had  opportunity,  some  printed 
since  my  first  Observations ;  and  others  of  an  older  date, 
but  which  I  had  no  opportunity  of  consulting  at  that 
time.  It  may  not  be  disagreeable  to  set  down  a  cata- 
logue of  them  here,  in  the  order  in  which  the  travels 
were  undertaken,  or  nearly  so. 

Itinerarium  Benjaminis,  in  seculo  12mo,  Ludg.  Bat. 

1633. 
Itinerarium  Sym.  Simeonis,  an.  1322,  e  cod.  MS.  in  Bib- 

liotheca  Coll.  Corp.  Christi,  Cantab,  asservato.  Cantab. 

1778. 
Voy.  de  Pietro  della  Valle,  an,  1614,  Sec.  8  torn,  a  Rouen, 

1745. 
Voy.  into  the  Levant,  by  Henry  Blunt,  Lond.    1650. 
Doubdan,  Voy.  de  la  Terre  Sainte,  Paris,  1661,  4to. 
The  present  state  of  the  Jews,  more  particularly  those 

in  Barbary,  by  L.  Addison,  Lond.  1675. 
Relation   of  a  Voyage  into  Mauritania,  by  the   Sieur 

Roland  Frejus,  trans,  from  the  French,  Lond.  1671. 
Account  of  the  Religion  and  Manners  of  the  Mahometans, 

by  Jos.  Pitts,  4th  ed.  Lond.  1738. 
Voy.  de  1* Arable  Heureuse,  1708,  1709,    1710,  Amst. 

1716. 
Journey  to  Mequinez,  under  Com.  Stewart,  in  1721,  by 

Windus,  Lond.  1725. 
Travels  in  several  parts  of  Turkey,  Egypt,  and  the  Holy 

Land,  by  James  Haynes,  Lond.  1774. 
Dr.  Richard  Chandler's  Travels  in  Asia  Minor,  Oxford, 

1775,  4to. 
■  ■  his  Travels  in  Greece,  Oxford,  1776,  4to. 

*  So  Moses,  "  when  he  was  come  to  years,  refused  to  be  called  the  sou 
of  Pharaoh's  daughter,  esteeming  the  reproach  of  Christ  greater  riches 
than  the  treasures  of  Egypt,  for  he  had  respect  unto  the  recompense  of 
reward."    Heb,  xi. 


MR.  HABMER'S  PREFACE.  XXXHI 

Niebuhr,  Descript.  de  T Arabic,  Amst.  &  Utrecht,  1774, 

4to. 

Yoy.  en  Arabic  &  en  d'autres  Pays  circonvoisins, 

tome  Ke  Amst.  &  Utr.  1776;  tome  2de,  1780,  4to. 
Irwin's  Voj.  up  the  Red  Sea,  &c.  2d  ed.  1780. 
Major  Rooke's  Travels  to  the  Coast  of  Arabia  Felix,  2d 

ed.  Lond.  1784. 
Memoirs  of  the  Baron  de  Tott,  translated  into  English, 

2  vols.  Lond.  178;3. 

Besides  these  sources  of  information,  I  have  consulted 
a  variety  of  books,  as  I  had  opportunity,  some  printed 
since  my  first  Observations;  and  others  of  an  older  date, 
but  which  I  had  no  opportunity  of  consulting  at  that  time. 
It  may  not  be  disagreeable  to  set  down  a  catalogue  of 
them  here,  in  the  order  in  which  the  travels  were  under- 
taken, or  nearly  so. 

Besides  some  few  others,  which  are  seldom,  if  ever, 
cited.  To  which  might  be  added.  Tales,  translated  from 
the  Persian  of  Inatulla  of  Delhi,  2  vols.  London,  1768. 
±  It  is  not  to  be  expected,  that  these  two  volumes,  I  am 
now  publishing,  should  strike  the  reader  as  sensibly  as 
the  two  first:  the  charms  of  novelty  must  be  much  abat- 
ed ;  though  not  quite  lost. 

They  relate,  in  general,  to  the  same  topics  as  the  pre- 
ceding, and  are  placed  under  the  like  chapters,  though  I 
have  numbered  the  Observations  so  as  to  make  one  series 
only,  for  the  sake  of  brevity  in  quoting  them.* 

But  though  these  Observations  are  placed  under  the 
same  general  heads,  my  reader  will  find  they  are  no£ 
merely  the  same  as  before,  only  further  amplified,  con- 
firmed, or  corrected;  they  are  most  of  them  quite  new, 
if  I  do  not  miscalculate,  and  may  not  only  be  read,  I 
would  hope,  with  some  pleasure,  but  some  considerable 
degree  of  inforojation,  as  to  matters  not  before  at  all  touch- 
ed upon. 

*  These  are  all  reduced  into  one  bodr  in  tlii»  cJiiion,  ninler  their  re- 
spective heads.    Edit. 

VOL.    I.  5 


XXXIV  MR.  HARMER'S  PREFACE. 

In  collecling  these  remarks,  I  have,  from  time  to  time, 
met  with  several  things  in  books  of  travels,  which  seemed 
verj  much  to  ilhistrate  certain  passages  of  the  classicSf 
\vhich  were  either  passed  over  in  silence,  or  very  un- 
happily explained  bj  modern  commentators  of  the  West, 
and  those  of  great  reputation,  and  acknowledged  learn- 
ing. Several  of  these  I  set  down  in  papers  apart,  and  de- 
signed to  have  placed  them  as  an  appendix,  at  the  end 
of  the  second  of  these  volumes ;  but  as  the  Observations 
on  the  Scriptures  took  up  more  room  than  I  expected,  I 
have  selected  a  part  only  as  a  specimen,  to  show  how 
agreeable  it  would  be,  for  those  that  write  notes  on  the 
classics,  to  make  use  of  this  mode  of  illustrating  them,  a» 
I  have  done  with  regard  to  the  sacred  writings.  This 
Specimen  I  place  at  the  close  of  this  Preface,  by  which 
means  the  two  volumes  will  be  of  much  the  same  size.* 

What  I  have  said  of  the  classics,  may  be  applied  also 
to  Josephus  and  St.  Jerom. 

The  paper  relating  to  Hectares  meeting  with  Achilles 
was  drawn  up,  on  the  particular  recommendation  of  that 
Suffolk  clergyman  I  was  speaking  of.  Indeed,  the  notes' 
on  that  passage  in  Pope's  Homer  demonstrate,  of  what 
consequence  the  mode  of  explaining  the  classics  I  am 
now  recommending  would  be,  on  many  occasions. 

I  will  only  add,  that  I  would  hope  I  have  not  made  too 
free  with  the  indulgence  of  the  public,  in  venturing  these 
two  additional  volumes  to  the  press  ;  nor  in  adding  thi» 
little  Specimen  of  Observations  on  the  Classics. 

Thomas  Harmer,     • 

Watesfield,  near  Bury  St.  Edmund's, 
Suffolk,  May  11,  1787. 

*  The  same  reason  for  this  arrangement  exists  in  the  present,  as  in  tha 
former  edition.    Edit. 


ADVERTISEMENT 


FOLLOWING    SHORT    ACCOUNT    OF    MR.  IIARMER. 

Though  the  Editor  endeavoured  to  procure  some 
more  satisfactory  accounts  of  the  late  Mr.  Harmer,  than 
had  hitherto  appeared,  jet  he  has  to  regret  that  his  en- 
deavours have  been  nearly  fruitless.  Nothing  of  real 
importance  was  found,  which  could  be  added  .to, the 
character  given  of  this  worthy  man  by  Dr.  Symonds, 
and  the  additional  account  by  a  correspondent  in  the 
European  Magazine,  These  two  pieces  are  therefore 
faithfully  copied,  and  must,  at  present,  supply  the  place 
of  that  more  minute  information,  which  it  was  out  of  the 
Editor's  power  to  procure. 

The  zeal  of  Mr.  Harmer  for  the  respectability  and 
honor  of  the  Sacred  Writings,  demands  the  warmest 
acknowledgments  of  all  his  readers :  but  the  ministers 
of  the  Gospel,  of  all  sects  and  parties,  are  under  lasting 
obligations  to  him,  for  striking  out  a  new  plan,  on  which, 
an  easy  and  luminous  solution  is  given  of  a  vast  number 
of  Scriptures  hitherto  exceedingly  obscure,  and  not 
a  few  on  the  common  mode  of  interpretation  utterly  inex- 
plicable. 


CHARACTER   OF   MR.  HARMER, 


DR.  SYMONDS. 

Tme  reputation  of  Mr.  Harmer,  as  a  scholar  and  a  divine,  is, 
I  believe,  fully  and  universally  established.    If,  as  a  writer,  he 
may  sometimes  be  thought  inelegant  in  his  style,  and  too  minute 
in  his  investigation  of  facts,  yet  these  defects  are  amply  com- 
pensated by  the  general  choice  of  his  materials,  and  the  clear- 
ness of  method  with  which  he  digested  and  arranged  them. 
Some  books  come  into  the  world  set  off  with  all  the  ornaments 
of  language ;  and  with  their  authors  are  soon  forgotten.     They 
resemble  those  meteors,  which,  by  their  luminous  appearance, 
attract  our  notice,  and,  in  the  same  moment  vanish  from  our 
sight.    The  credit  of  Mr.  Harmer's  Avritings  rests  upon  a  foun- 
dation strong  and  durable.     He  hath  professedly  treated  a  sub- 
ject of  the  first  importance,  which  had  before  been  touched  upon 
incidentally ;  and  by  showing  at  large  the  Avonderful  conformi- 
ty between  the  ancient  and  modern  customs  in  the  East,  hath 
not  only  thrown  a  considerable  light  upon  numberless  passages 
in  the  Bible,  but  hath  opened  new  and  fruitful  sources  of  infor- 
mation for  the  use  of  future  expositors.     But  it  would  be  doing 
great  injustice  to  Mr.  H.to  confine  our  attention  to  the  fruits  of 
his  learning  alone.     As  the  whole  purpose  of  his  studies  was 
to  illustrate  the  Scriptures,  so  it  was  his  constant  endeavour  to 
practise  those  duties  which  are  therein  declared  to  be  essen- 
tial to  the  forming  of  a  true  Christian.     He  was  a  man  of  unaf- 
fected piety,  equally  kind  as  a  master,  parent,  and   husband  ; 
meek  and  modest  in  his  deportment,  and  invariably  averse  from 
every  degree  of  intemperance  and  excess.     Superior  to  all  those 
narrow  and  illiberal  prejudices  which  we  are  apt  to  imbibe  from 
education  or  habit,  he  was  governed  by  a  general  principle  of 
bencyolence  ;  and  though  he  was  commonly  called  the  Father 


DR.  SYMONDS'  CHARACTER  OF  MR.  HARMER.    xxxvil 

of  the  Dissenters,  yet  his  good  offices  were  so  far  from  being 
confined  to  his  own  communion,  that  he  acknowledged  and  en- 
couraged merit  wherever  he  found  it.  "  I  will  apply  to  Har- 
mer,"  was  the  usual  language  of  every  injured  person  in  the 
neighbourhood  ;  and  it  seldom  happened  that  the  aggressor 
was  not  soon  induced,  by  his  persuasion,  to  repair  the  injury 
that  he  had  done ;  and  I  do  not  exaggerate,  when  I  affirm,  that 
there  is  not  probably  a  single  instance  of  an  individual  to  be 
found,  who,  by  a  mild  and  seasonable  interference,  prevented 
more  lawsuits  than  Mr.  H.  When  we  reflect  that  all  these 
virtues  which  he  so  eminently  possessed,  were  still  heightened 
by  the  character  of  a  peacemaker,  to  which  an  evangelical 
blessing  is  annexed,  we  cannot  but  look  upon  his  death  as  a 
public  loss ;  much  less  can  we  be  surprised,  that  it  should  deep- 
ly affect  all  those  who  personally  knew  him  and  enjoyed  his  friend- 
ship ;  but  by  none  is  it  more  sincerely  lamented,  than  by  him 
who  offers  this  slender  tribute  of  regard  to  his  memory.  Mr. 
Harmer  died  at  Watesfield,  in  Suffolk,  Nov.  27, 1788.  He  was 
the  author  of, 

1.  Observations  on  divers  Passages  in  Scripture,  placing 
many  of  them  in  a  light  altogether  new,  ascertaining  the  mean- 
ing of  several,  not  determinable  by  the  methods  commonly 
made  use  of  by  the  learned,  and  proposing  to  consideration  prob- 
able conjectures  on  others  different  from  Avhat  had  been  hither- 
to recommended  to  the  attention  of  the  curious ;  grounded  on 
circumstances  incidentally  mentioned  in  books  of  voyages  and 
travels  in  the  East,  8vo.  1764. 

This  edition  being  very  incorrectly  printed,  was  republished 
in  1777,  with  a  second  vol.  and  two  more  added  in  1787. 

2.  The  Outlines  of  a  new  Commentary  on  Solomon's  Song, 
drawn  by  the  help  of  Instructions  from  the  East ;  containing  1^ 
Remarks  on  its  general  Nature  ;  2.  Observations  on  detached 
Places  of  it;  3.  Queries  concerning  the  rest  of  the  Poem,  8vo. 
1768,  second  edition,  1775. 


rV  ^ 


May,  lf93. 

TO  THE  EDITOR  OF  THE  EUROPEAN  MAGAZINE. 

Sir,  In  your  Magazine  for  October,  1789,  you  have  inserted  Dr.  Symond'* 
character  of  a  very  learned  and  respectable  person,  who  deserved  the 
tribute  of  respect  paid  to  him  :  believing  that  further  particulars  would 
not  be  unacceptable  to  your  readers,  I  send  you  some 

BRIEF  MEMOIRS  OF  T«E  LIVE,  CHARACTER,  AND  WRITINGS  OF 

THOMAS  HARMER. 

The  Rev.  Thomas  Harmer  was  born  in  the  city  of  Norwich, 
in  the  year  1715,  of  parents,  who  manifested  great  care  to  train 
him  up  in  the  knowledge  and  the  fear  of  God,  and  to  improve 
those  distinguished  talents,  of  which  he  gave  very  early  evi- 
dence ;  and  they  soon  had  the  pleasure  to  see  their  pains  re- 
warded by  his  piety,  diligence,  and  uncommon  proficiency  in 
literature.     The  Christian  ministry,  among  the  protestant  dis- 
senters, was  the  object  of  his  own  choice  ;  and  though  his 
friends  were«in  a  situation  to  provide  advantageously  for  him, 
could  he  have  been  prevailed  on  to  engage  in  the  manufactures 
of   their  city:  he  virould,  on  no  consideration,  relinquish  it. 
Having  made  considerable  progress  in  Grammar  learning,  he 
entered  upon  academical  studies,  under  the  direction  of  the 
learned  Mr.  Eames,  in  London,  with  whom  he  continued  till 
his  20th  year.    At  that  time,  the  independent  church,  in  the  vil- 
lage of  Watesfield,  in  Suffolk,  being  without  a  pastor,  Mr.  Har- 
mer was  invited  to  preach  to  them.     The  very  great  zeal  and  ear- 
nestness of  his  preaching,  joined  with  the  ability  and  knowledge 
which  he  discovered,  much  beyond  his  years,  induced  them  to 
give  him  not  only  an  unanimous,  but  a  most  affectionate  and  ur- 
gent invitation,  to  take  upon  him  the  pastoral  office  among  them. 
The  situation  was  certainly  obscure  for  a  person  of  his  shining 
talents,  which  promised  to  raise  him  to  a  station  of  distinguished 
eminence  among  his  brethren.     But  he  listened  to  the  call  of 
this  society,  wisely  judging,  that  a  connexion  with  such  a  plain 


BRIEF  MEMOIRS  OF  MR.  HARMER.  XXXIX 

and  serious  people,  would  be,  particularly  favourable  to  his  own 
religious  improvement,  and  that  so  retired  a  situation  would  af- 
ford him  much  leisure  for  pursuing  his  favourite  studies.    Up- 
on his  settlement  here,  Mr.  H.  devoted  a  great  part  of  his  time 
to  his  perfecting  his  knowledge  of  the  Latin,  Greek,  and  He- 
brew languages,  in  each  of  which  he  became  a  critic.     He  ac- 
quired likewise  an  extensive  and  accurate  knowledge  of  history, 
both  ancient  and  modern,  and  no  inconsiderable  skill  as  an  an- 
tiquarian.    But  the  favourite  object  of  his  pursuit  was  Oriental 
science,  which  he  applied  for  the  illustration  of  the  Sacred 
Writings,  observing  a  striking  conformity  between  the  present 
customs  of  the  Eastern  nations,  and  those  of  the  ancients,  as 
mentioned  or  alluded  to  in  various  parts  of  Scripture.    He  con- 
ceived a  design,  at  a  very  early  period,  of  making  extracts  of 
such  passages  in  books  of  travels  and  voyages,  as  appeared  to 
him  to  furnish  a  key  to  many  parts  of  Holy  Writ.     That  he 
might  avail  himself  of  the  assistance  of  foreign  publications  of 
this  kind,  he  applied  to  the  study  of  the  French  language,  with 
which  he   soon  became  perfectly  acquainted.     An  account  of 
such  foreign  and  other  publications  as  he  had  read  and  digested, 
with  a  view  to  this  useful  design,  is  given  by  himself  in  his  Preface 
to  his  "  Observations  on  divers  Passages  of  Scripture  ;"  a  work 
which  he  executed  with  great  labour  and  accuracy.    It  was  first 
published  in  one  vol.  8vo.  and  met  with  a  very  favourable  re- 
ception, though  it  suffered  greatly  from  the  inaccurate  manner 
in  which  it  was  printed. 

Mr,  H,  continuing  the  pursuit  of  this  branch  of  knowledge, 
was  soon  in  the  possession  of  various  new  observations ;  and  in 
the  year  1776,  he  published  a  second  edition  of  this  work,  in  two 
8vo.  vols.  The  late  learned  Dr.  Lowth,  Bishop  of  London,  much 
approved  his  undertaking,  and  not  only  honored  the  work  by 
quotations  from  it,  in  his  translation  of  the  prophecy  of  Isaiah, 
but  was  pleased  to  correspond  with  the  author  on  the  subject  of 
it  By  the  interest  of  this  eminent  and  amiable  prelate,  Mr.  H. 
was  favoured  with  the  MS.  papers  of  the  celebrated  Sir  John 
Chardin,  which  furnished  him  with  a  variety  of  curious  addi- 
tions to  his  work.  After  the  appearance  of  this  second  edition, 
Mr.  H.  still  continued  indefatigable  in  further  researches,  till 
he  collected  materials  for  two  additional  volumes,  the  publica- 
tion of  which  he  completed  9.  little  before  his  death.     Besides 


XL  BRIEF  MEMOIRS  OF     '* " 

this,  which  was  his  principal  work,  he  published  a  very  learned 
and  ingenious  performance,  which  he  modestly  entitled,  "Out- 
lines of  a  new  Commentary  on  the  Book,  of  Solomon's  Song." 
The  chief  design  of  which,  as  well   as  many  passages  in  it,  he 
places  in  a  new  and  pleasing  light :  he  also  printed  "  An  Ac- 
count of  the  Jewish  Doctrine  of  the  Resurrection  of  the  Dead  ;" 
«  Remarks  on  the  ancient  and  present  State  of  the  Churches  of 
Norfolk  and  Suffolk  ;"  An  Address  to  those  who  are  religious- 
ly disposed,  as  a  persuasion  of  church  fellowship,  drawn  up  at 
the  request  of  the  associated  ministers  of  Norfolk  and  Suffolk  ; 
likewise  two  or  three  single  Sermons,  of  which  one  was  preach- 
ed on  the  death  of  Mr.  Crabb,  a  worthy  member  of  his  church. 
His  literary  knowledge  honored  him  with  the  esteem  and  ac- 
quaintance of  the  learned  of  all  denominations ;  and  in  Ireland, 
as  well  as  England,  his  correspondents  were  amongst  men  of 
the    highest  dignity  in  the    established  church;  for  Mr. H. 
though  a  zealous  dissenter,  was  a  man  of  such  candour  and 
moderation,  of  such  piety,  learning  and  affability,  that  he  con- 
ciliated the  esteem,  and  obtained  the  confidence  of  the  worthiest 
men  of  all  parties.    But  it  is  not  easily  conceived,  how  much  re- 
gard was  paid  to  him  by  those  of  his  own  denomination.    In 
the  counties  of  Norfolk  and  Suffolk,  more  espeeially,  he  obtain- 
ed peculiar  respect  and  influence.     Mr.  H.  was  generally  con- 
sidered, as  that  person,  who  was,  of  all  others,  best  qualified  to 
advise  his  brethren,  and  the  churches  under  their  care,  in  cases 
of  weight  and  diffic^ulty.     Among  his  own  people,  he  was  truly 
laborious,  besides  the   ordinary  services  of  the  Lord's  Day,  for 
which  to  the  last  he  was  indefatigable  in  his  preparatory  stu- 
dies, he  took  great  pains  in  visiting  the  sick,  in  catechising  the 
children,  and  instructing  the  youth  of  his  flock,  many  of  whom 
he  had  the  pleasure  of  receiving  into  the   communion  of  his 
church.     It  was,  however,  his  constant  practice  to  meet  a  num- 
ber of  his  congregation,  in  the  vestry,  every  Tuesday  evening, 
for  prayer,  when  he  used  to  read  a  sermon,  from  the  French  of 
Saurin,  Massillon,  or  some  favourite  author.    He  also  preached 
two  monthly  lectures  in  the  neighbouring  villages,  and  was 
frequently  engaged  in  other  occasional  services  at  a  distance. 

It  might  be  truly  said  of  him,  that  he  was  in  labours  more 
abundant,  and  his  reward  was  great.  Beloved  by  all,  and  use- 
ful to  many,  he  passed  his  days  in  more  comfort  and  happiness, 


BRIEF  MEMOIRS  OF  MR.  HARMER.  xLl 

than  is  usually  enjoyed  by  those  who  are  placed  in  more  public 
situations.* 

His  strain  of  preaching  was  practical  and  evangelical,  though 
he  frequently  entered  into  a  critical  examination  of  his  text,  and 
in  his  expositions  of  Scripture,  which  made  a  considerable  part 
of  his  public  work,  he  displayed  great  learning,  yet  he  was  not 
content  to  leave  the  pulpit,  till  he  had  addressed  the  hearts  and 
consciences  of  his  hearers,  which  he  did  with  great  plainness 
and  affection,  frequently  with  many  tears.  His  last  sermon  was 
uncommonly  affectionate,  and  the  concluding  expressions  pe- 
culiarly striking.  Having  exhorted  his  hearers  to  peace  and 
unanimity,  he  concluded  with  these  remarkable  words,  "  May 
an  attention  be  paid  by  all  to  these  solemn  counsels,  that  when 
my  eyes  are  sealed  up  in  death,  you  may  continue  happy  and 
prosperous." 

It  was  his  earnest  and  frequent  prayer,  that  he  might  not  out- 
live the  affections  of  his  people,  nor  his  usefulness  among  them* 
It  is  needless  to  say  that  his  request  was  granted.  On  the  fol- 
lowing Tuesday  he  met  his  friends,  as  usual,  in  the  vestiy,  and 
having  translated  a  sermon  from  the  French,  he  commended  his 
flock  to  the  care  of  Heaven :  he  passed  the  next  day  in  perfect 
health,  and,  after  the  devotions  of  his  family,  retired  to  rest ;  he 
slept  well,  till  about  four  o'clock  in  the  morning,  and  then 
awoke,  complaining  of  pain :  but  before  any  assistance  could 
be  afforded,  he  expired  without  a  struggle  or  a  groan,  on  the 
27th  of  Nov.  1788,  aged  73  years. 

•  It  is  remarkable,  that  during  the  space  of  49  years,  he  was  not  once 
prerenled  from  the  exercise  of  his  ministry  on  Sunday,  and  afterward  only 
for  a  single  day  during  the  rest  of  his  life. 


VOL.  L 


SHORT  SPECIMEN 

or     THE    ADVANTAGE   THAT    MAY     BE     DERIVED     FROM    BOOKS   OF 

TRAVELS  INTO  THE  EAST, 

FOR    ILLUSTRATING    THE    CREEK    AND    ROMAN    CLASSICS,     AS  ALSO 
JOSEPHUS   AND    jtROM. 


OBSERVATION  I. 

MANNER    IN    WHICH    THE    BODY  WAS  PREPARED    EOR    INTER- 
MENT. 

Maillet,  in  his  account  of  fhemannerof  preparing 
the  body  for  inferraent  in  Egypt,*  in  these  later  days, 
after  having  told  us,  that  the  embalming  of  antiquity  is  no 
longer  in  use  there,  informs  us,  however,  that  something 
very  similar  to  it  is  still  practised  at  times  in  that  coun- 
try, particularly  with  regard  to  rich  persons.  "  When 
such  sort  of  people  are  dead,  they  wash  the  body  several 
times  with  rosewater ;  they  afterward  perfume  it  with  in- 
cense, with  aloes,  and  a  quantity  of  other  odoriferous  sub- 
stances, of  which  they  are  not  at  all  sparing ;  and  they 
are  careful  to  stop  its  natural  apertures  with  perfumed 
cotton.'* 

This  repeated  washing  of  the  body  with  a  very  odorif- 
erous liquid,  for  the  Egyptian  rosewater  is  much  more 
fragrant  than  our's,  seems  evidently  to  be  made  use  of  to 
make  the  scent  more  rich  and  lasting;  as  is  the  adding 
other  rich  perfumes  to  the  rosewater,  and  that  in  consid- 
erable quantities. 

It  is,  in  like  manner,  of  a  double  anointing  of  the  bones 
of  Patroclus,  by  order  of  Achilles,    that  we  are,  I  should 

*  Lett.  10,  p.  88. 


MISCELLANEOUS  OBSERVATIONS,  &c.  XLIII 

imagine,  to  understand  a  passage  of  the  Iliad,  which  is  thus 
translated  in  Pope's  Homer : 

"  These,*  wrapt  in  double  cauls  of  fat,  prepare  ; 
And  in  tlie  golden  vase  dispose  with  care  ; 
There  let  them  rest,  with  decent  lienor  laid, 
'Till  I  shall  follow  to  the  infernal  shade. 
Meantime  erect  the  tomb  with  pious  hands, 
A  common  structure  ou  the  humble  sands  ; 
Hereafter  Greece  some  nobler  work  may  raise, 
And  late  posteiity  recoi'd  our  praise."t 

I  cannot  conceive  that  the  fat  was  designed  for  any 
other  purpose  than  to  render  the  bones  more  fragrant, 
and  as  thej,  as  it  is  well  known,  afterward  were  wont  to 
perfume  them,  it  is  natural  to  imagine,  this  fat  substance 
might  be  intended  to  convey  some  fragrancy  to  the  bones. 
Homer  represents  the  body  of  Hector,  in  this  same  23d 
Iliad,  as  anointed  with  roseoil  :  by  one  of  their  deities 
indeed;  but  this  shows,  however,  that  he  was  not  a  stran- 
ger to  the  method  of  communicating  fragrancy  to  unctu- 
ous matters,  by  infusing  sweetscented  herbs  or  flowers 
in  them.  Nor  was  it  an  operation  of  such  difficulty,  as 
to  require  the  interposition  of  a  deily.  The  wrapping 
them  in  cauls  of  fat  would,  on  the  contrary,  have  soon 
rendered  them  nauseous  and  disgustful,  to  a  very  high  de- 
gree ;  and  it  was  foreknown,  according  to  Homer,  that 
the  bones  of  Achilles  were,  in  a  little  time,  to  be  mingled 
with  those  of  Patroclus :  consequently,  when  these  last 
mentioned  bones  would  be  found  enveloped  in  a  sub- 
stance, according  to  this  translation,  in  a  stale  of  great 
putrefaction.  Nor  can  it  be  well  conceived  why  just  two 
cauls  should  be  made  use  of,  if  they  were  the  cauls  of  the 
animals,  whose  other  parts  were  burnt  in  the  funeral  pile. 
But  if  we  suppose,  that  oil,  or  anim^il  fat,  was  so  prepared 
as   to  make  an  odoriferous  ointment ;  and  the  bones  In 

•  The  bones. 

f  K««  roc  fxiv  iv  ^Wivj  <pix\y]  noci  ^ittXxki  Ay^ixu 
QuofAiv,  &c.  Tl.  xxiii.  213,  &r. 


XLIV  MISCELLANEOUS  OBSERVATION'S  ON  THE 

have  been  twice  anointed  with  one  and  the  same  ointmenf, 
as  the  modern  Egyptians  wash  a  dead  body  several  times 
with  rosewater;  or  anointed  with  ^wo  different  sorts  oi* 
ointment,  as  the  Egyptians  perfume  a  dead  body  with  in- 
cense, and  aloes,  &c.  as  well  as  with  rosewater,  mingling 
their  different  odours  together:  in  either  case  Homer 
might  represent  Achilles,  as  directing  that  a  double  coat- 
ing of  an  unctuous  nature  might  be  given  to  the  bones  of 
his  friend,  that  they  might  be  more  richly  scented,  and 
the  perfume  remain  the  longer;  and  this  double  coating 
may  very  well  be  understood,  in  the  language  of  poetry, 
to  have  been  termed  cauls,  covering  those  bones  as  cauls 
of  fat  do  the  bowels.  But  it  is  hard  to  make  out  to  what 
end  a  double  portion  of  mere  melted  fat  should  be  put  in- 
to the  urn,  supposing  it  so  purified,  as  to  be  in  a  manner 
incorruptible,  if  unmingled  with  matters  of  an  aromatic 
kind.  Cauls,  however,  which  Pope  mentions,  are  very 
different  things  from  fat  purified  with  care,  and  are,  I  ap- 
prehend, liable  to  great  putrefaction  in  a  little  time.* 

And  now  I  am  writing  upon  this  subject,  and  having 
shown,  in  another  part  of  this  work,  that  the  people  of 
the  East  express  their  respect  to  bones  long  interred,  by 
mixing  them  with  odoriferous  matters,  I  should  appre- 
hend, that  since  the  Jews  were  wont  to  bury  their  dead 
with  spices,  when  untouched  by  fire  ;  so  when  they  used 
fire  to  destroy  the  flesh,  which  might  sometimes  happen, 
particularly  in  the  case  of  Saul,  and  respect  was  after- 
ward paid  to  such  bones,f  I  should  think  it  natural  to 
believe,  they  somehow  perfumed  them.  At  least,  that 
if  the  men  of  Jabesh  Gilead  did  not  pay  that  respect  to 
king  Saul,  David  his  successor  did,  when  he  translated 
his  bones  from  Gilead  to  the  land  of  Benjamin,J  along  with 
the  bones  of  Jonathan,  dear  to  David  as  Patroclus  to 
Achilles,     The  dying  of  those  whose  bones  were  buried 

•  The  precautions  prescribed  by  Dioscoiides,  lib.  '2,  cap.  88,  &c.  to  pre» 
pare  animal  fat  for  keeping  for  medical  purposes,  sufficiently  show  this. 

t  1  Sam.  xxxi,  12,  13.  +  2  Sam.  xxi.  12,  13,  14. 


GHEEK  AND  ROMAN  CLASSICS.  XLV 

along  with  the  boues  of  Saul  and  Jonathan  was  highly 
disgraceful,  for  "  cursed  was  every  one  that  was  hanged 
on  a  tree;"  but  it  was  expiatory,  and  after  the  atonement 
was  made,  it  might  not  be  improper  to  pay  some  honor  to 
these  victims;  their  being  buried  in  the  sepulchre  of 
Kish  seems  to  have  been  intended  as  an  honor,  as  well  as 
the  translation  of  the  bones  of  Saul  and  Jonathan ;  if  it 
was,  it  is  by  no  means  unnatural  to  suppose  they  were  bu- 
ried with  perfumes,  liquid  or  dry,  since  as  the  custom  of 
the  Jews  was  so  to  bury  in  the  time  of  our  Lord,  so  sa- 
cred history  informs  us,  it  was  practised  by  them  as  early 
as  the  days  of  king  Asa,  2  Chron.  xvi.  13,  14,  in  the 
fourth  generation  from  David,  nor  can  we  well  suppose 
that  this  was  the  first  beginning  of  the  practice,  which 
obtained  among  the  Jews,  of  applying  perfumes  to  the 
dead. 

I 

OBSERVATION  II. 

OF  SLEEPING  IN  THE  PORCH  OF  THE  TENT. 

As  it  is  more  than  possible  that  some  readers  may  find 
it  difficult  to  comprehend,  hfiw  sleeping  in  the  porch  of  a 
tent  should  be  more  safe,  for  its  concealment  from  the 
eyes  of  visitors,  than  sleeping  in  the  tent  itself;  I  have 
thought  that  the  transcribing  the  Baron  de  Tott's  account, 
of  the  tent  of  the  cham  of  the  Crim  Tartars,  whom  he  at- 
tended in  one  of  his  expeditions,  might  serve  for  a  good 
note  on  that  passage  of  the  24th  Iliad,  in  which  Achilles  di- 
rects where  king  Priam  should  sleep,  in  order  to  be  more 
secure  from  discovery,  after  Achilles  had  agreed  to  ac- 
cept a  ransom  for  the  body  of  Hector. 

**With  that,  Achilles  bad  prepare  the  bed, 
"With  purple  soft,  and  shaggy  carpets  spread  ; 
Forth,  by  the  flaming  lights  they  bend  iheir  way. 
And  place  the  couches,  and  the  coverings  lay. 
Then  he  :  Now  father  sleep,  but  sleep  not  here. 
Consult  thy  safety,  and  forgive  my  fear. 
Lest  any  Argive,  at  this  hour  awake. 


XLVl  MISCELLANEOUS  OBSERVATIONS  ON  THE 

To  ask  our  counsel,  or  our  orders  take,  >  "  '        ' 

Approaching  sudden  to  our  open  tent. 

Perchance  behold  thee,  and  our  grace  prevent ; 

Should  such  report  thy  honor'd  person  here. 

The  king  of  men  the  ransom  might  defer. 

Then  gave  Iiis  hand  at  parting,  to  prevent 

The  old  man's  fears,  and  turn'd  within  the  tent 

Where  fair  Briseis,  bright  in  blooming  charms. 

Expects  her  hero  with  desiring  arms. 

But  in  the  porch  the  king  *  and  herald  rest. 

Sad  dreams  of  care  yet  wand'ring  in  their  breast." 

The  Baron's  account  of  the  tent  of  the  prince  of  the 
Crim  Tartars  follows. 

"  A  light  paling,  which  easily  can  be  packed  and  un- 
packed, forms  a  little  circular  wall  of  four  feet  and  a  half 
high.  Its  two  extremities  kept  near  three  quarters  of  a 
yard  distant,  make  the  entrance  into  the  tent.  A  score 
of  small  rods,  which  join  at  the  upper  ends,  and  at  the 
lower  have  a  leathern  ring,  by  which  they  hook  to  the 
paling,  form  the  dome,  and  sustain  the  roof;  which  con- 
sists of  a  cowl,  or  covering  of  felt,  that  descends,  and 
spreads  over  the  walls,  which  are  lined  also  with  the  same 
stuff.  A  girdle  includes  the  whole,  and  some  earth,  or 
snow,  thrown  up  round  the  bottom  of  the  tent,  prevents 
the  air  from  penetrating,  and  makes  it  perfectly  solid 
without  mast  or  cordage.  Others,  of  a  nicer  construction, 
have  the  cones  circularly  open  at  the  top,  which  aper- 
tures give  passage  to  the  smoke,  permit  fires  to  be  lighted 
in  the  tents,  and  render  them  inaccessible  to  the  intem- 
perance of  the  most  rigorous  climate. 

"  The  tent  of  the  cham  was  of  this  kind,  but  so  large, 
that  more  than  sixty  people  might  commodiously  sit  round 
a  wood  fire.  It  was  lined  with  crimson  stuff,  furnished 
with  some  cushions,  and  had  a  circular  carpet.  Twelve 
small  tents,  placed  round  thatof  a  prince,  for  the  use  of  his 
officers  and  pages,  were  comprised  within  a  circumference 
of  felt  five  feet  high."t 

*  Piiam. 
f  Memoirs,  part  ii.  p.  153,  154. 


GREEK  AND  ROMAN  CLASSICS.  XLVU 

The  Tartar  princely  tent  is  designed  for  a  guard  against 
very  severe  cold,  which  was  extremely  sharp  when  de 
Toft  attended  the  cham;  the  tent  of  Achilles  was  de- 
signed for  a  much  more  temperate  climate.  This  last 
was  also  not  intended  to  be  frequently  moved.  These 
two  circumstances  undoubtedly  occasioned  some  varia- 
tions :  the  tent  of  Achilles  appears  to  have  been  more 
solidly  constructed;  without  a  covering  of  felt,  but  its 
roof  thatched,  and  probably  no  fire  kindled  within  the 
royal  apartment.  But  it  should  seem,  in  other  respects, 
there  was  a  great  resemblance.  The  ooco?,  into  which 
Priam  straight  went,  answered  the  cham's  apartment, 
which  would  hold  sixty  people.  Both  were  surrounded 
with  a  paling  of  considerable  extent ;  and  that  of  the  Greek 
much  the  most  solid.  Both  had  a  number  of  small  distinct 
apartments  for  the  use  of  the  attendants  :  those  that  slept 
in  them,  were  said  by  Homer  to  sleep  gv  UfoS'fQfji.a  ^ofj,^, 
which  Pope  has  rendered  the  porch.  They  were  called 
AiOxfTflti,  which  expresses  their  warmth,  whether  in  contra- 
distinction from  the  situation  of  those  that  slept  in  the 
open  air,  but  within  the  enclosure,  as  many  of  them  did, 
or  from  some  other  cause,  we  need  not  inquire.  The  fire 
for  cooking,  probably  in  the  open  air,  in  the  enclosure. 
Understood  after  this  manner,  the  account  in  the  original 
Greek  is  sufficiently  plain. 

Nor  is  it  only  after  this  manner  that  the  late  cham  of 
Tartary  had  his  own  private  tent  formed,  with  its  appur- 
tenances ;  but  Thevenot  gives  us  a  similar  account,  of 
the  manner  in  which  the  bashaw  of  Egypt  was  en- 
camped, when  he  was  leaving  his  government  ;*  and, 
what  is  more,  Egmont  and  Heyman  saw  the  Grand  Sig- 
nior  encamped,  in  much  the  same  manner  in  general,  though 
with  more  magnificence,  on  the  shore  of  that  very  coun- 
try where  Achilles  had  his  tent  placed,  and  not  very  far 
distant  from  the  spot.     "  Behind  his  tent  was  another,  but 

'  Trav.  in  the  Levant,  part  i.  p.  l-iS, 


XLVlll  MISCELLANEOUS  OBSERVATIONS  ON  THE 

Tcry  small,  serving  as  a  retreat,*  and  at  a  small  distance 
from  it  were  four  others,  being,  as  it  were,  the  bed  cham- 
bers of  the  Grand  Signior  and  his  sons."f 

OBSERVATION  III. 

ON  THE  MEATTING  OF  THE  EXPRESSIOPf,  TALKING  ABOUT 
AN  OAK  OR  A  ROCK,  USED  BV  HOMER. 

Having,  in  another  place,  endeavoured  to  illustrate 
that  passage  in  Ezeklel,  in  which  mention  is  made  of  the 
talking  of  the  Jewish  people  about  that  Prophet,  by  the 
walls^and  in  the  doors  of  their  houses  ;  a  verj  learned 
and  ingenious  friend  has  thought,  the  like  considerations 
may  serve  to  elucidate  a  passage  in  Homer,  and  has  wish- 
ed I  would  not  forget  it  in  the  present  work. 

The  passage  he  has  pointed  out,  is  in  the  22d  Iliad, 
and  relates  to  the  soliloquy  of  Hector,  while  waiting  with 
apprehension,  for  the  coming  of  Achilles,  which*  accord- 
ingly, terminated  in  Hector's  death. ^  He  deliberates 
whether  he  should  meet  him  unarmed,  and  make  propo- 
sals of  restitution,  &c«  but  concludes  that  such  an  attempt 
would  be  in  vain. 

There  is  some  deviation  here  from  the  literal  sense  of 
the  original,  which  has  been  thought  considerably  ob- 
scure, as  appears  by  the  following  note  on  the  third  and 
fourth  lines  of  the  above  citation.  "  The  words  are  liter- 
ally these,  '  There  is  no  talking  with  Achilles,  from  an 
oaky  or  from  a  rock,  (or  about  an  oak  or  a  rock,)  as  a 
young  man  and  maiden   talk  together.     It  is  thought  an 

•  Such  an  one  might  have  served  for  the  lodging  of  Briseis. 

t  Vol.  i.  ch.  16.  p.  212,  213. 

i  "  What  hope  of  mercy  from  this  vengeful  foe. 
But  woman-like  to  fall,  and  fall  without  a  blow  ? 
We  greet  not  here,  as  man  conversing  man, 
Met  at  an  oak,  or  journeying  o'er  a  plain ; 
No  season  now  for  calm  familiar  talk. 
Like  youths  and  maidens  in  an  evening  walk." 

Pope's  Homes. 


GREEK  AND  ROMAN  CLASSICS.  XLIX 

obscure  passage,  though  I  confess  I  am  either  too  fond  of 
my  own  application  in   the  above  cited  verses,  or  they 
make  it  a  very  clear  one.     *  There  is  no  conversing  with 
this  implacable   enemy  in   the  rage  of  battle  ;  as  when 
sauntering  people  talk  at  leisure  to  one  another  on  the 
road,  or  when  young  men  and  women  meet  in  afield.'     I 
think    the   exposition   of    Eustathius   more    farfetched, 
though  it  be  ingenious  ;  and  therefore  I  must  do  him  the 
justice  not  to  suppress  it.     *  It  was  a  common  practice,* 
says  he,  '  with  the  heathens,  to  expose  such  children  as 
they  either  could  not,  or  would  not  educate.     The  places 
where  they  deposited   them,   were  usually  in  the  cavi- 
ties of  rocks,  or  the  hollow  of  oaks:  these  children  being 
frequently  found  and  preserved  by   strangers,  were  said 
to  be  the  offspring  of  those  oaks  or  rocks  where  they  were 
foutid.     This  gave  occasion  to  the  poets  to  feign  that  men 
were  born  of  oaks  ;  and   there   was  a  famous  fable  too  of 
Deucalion  and  Pyrrha's   repairing   mankind  by  casting 
Btones  behind  them.     It  grew  at   last  into  a  proverb,  to 
signify  idle  tales ;  so  that  in   the   present  passage  it  im- 
ports, that  Achilles  will  not  listen  to  such  idle    tales,  as 
may  pass  with  silly  maids  and  fond  lovers,  &c." 

He  adds,  "  Eustathius's  explanation  may  be  corrobo- 
rated by  a  parallel  place  in  the  Odyssey ;  where  the  poet 
says. 

The  meaning  of  which  passage  is  plainly  this,  '  Tell  me 
of  what  race  you  are,  for  undoubtedly  you  had  a  father 
and  a  mother ;  you  are  not,  according  to  the  old  story, 
descended  from  an  oak  or  a  rock.'     ^ 

Here  I  would  remark,  that  Hector  was  deliberating 
about  a  matter  of  the  highest  consequence  to  himself,  his 
family,  and  his  country,  and  could  not  naturally,  I  should 
think,  be  supposed  to  refer  to  such  an  idle  tale.  The  ex- 
planation, however,  by  the  celebrated  modern  translator, 
is  neither  distinct  enough,  nor  does  it  seem  to  give  us  the 
exact  thought.     I  should  suppose  Hector  is  not  repre- 

VOL.  r.  7 


t.  MISCELLANKOUS  OBSERVATIONS  ON  THE 

sented  as  referring  to  the  sauntering  conversation  of  lov- 
ers, with  little  or  no  meaning;  but  to  the  friendly  inter- 
course of  persons  meeting  under  an  oak  or  a  rock,  stran- 
gers to  each  other,  but  with  the  most  benevolent  inten- 
tions on  both  sides,  and  perhaps  with  mutual  advantage 
and  beneGt. 

Shade  is  in  common  sought  for  by  Oriental  travellers 
when  they  rest.  They  are  wont  to  take  their  repasts, 
and  often  to  sleep  in  it,  when  fatigued  with  the  heat  of 
the  weather:  and  the  shade  of  rocks  and  trees  is  mention- 
ed on  such  occasions.  So  the  fisherman,  in  whose  barque 
Monsieur  Doubdan  and  his  companion  were  passengers, 
going  to  Tyre  and  Sidon,  went  ashore  with  them,  between 
those  two  cities,  in  a  place  "where  there  was  a  very 
large  and  deep  cavern,  hollowed  out  of  the  rock  by  the 
agitation  of  the  waves  of  the  sea  ;  there  they  cooked  their 
fish;  and  there  they  found  many  Turks,  Moors,  and 
Arabs,  people  of  all  colours,  of  whom  some  were  enjoying 
their  repose  and  the  fresh  air  on  the  sand,  others  were 
dressing  their  provisions  among  these  rocks,  others  were 
smoaking  tobacco,  notwithstanding  the  danger,  which  was 
so  apparent,  by  the  fallingof  large  masses  of  the  rock  from 
time  to  time:  but  they  are  wont  frequently  to  assemble 
there,  on  account  of  a  spring  of  exceeding  good  water  in 
that  place."* 

So  Dr.  Richard  Chandler,  in  his  Travels  in  Greece; 
tells  us,  "a  Turk  is  some  times  seen  squatting  on  his 
hams,  in  the  shade,  by  the  door  of  bis  house ;  or  in  a 
group,  looking  on  his  horses  feeding  in  the  season  on  the 
green  corn  ;"f  and  in  a  succeeding  page,  p.  62,  he  says, 
that  "  they  repaired  to  a  goatstand,  where  the  peasants 
killed  and  roasted  a  kid  for  his  supper,  after  which  he  laid 
down  to  sleep  in  the  lee  of  an  huge  bare  rock."f 

And  as  they  not  only  sit  in  the  entrances  of  their 
houses,  but  in  the  shade  near  their  doors,  and  eat  and 
sleep  under  rocks,  so  they  eat  and  sleep  under  trees  too 
that  are  thick  and  spreading.     Dr.  Chandler  gives  an  ac- 

'  Voj-.  de  la  Terre  Siante,  p.  541,  542.         f  P- 1^1,  162.        +  P.  162 


CREEK  AXD  ROMAN  CLASSICS.  H 

county  in  the  same  volume,  of  taking  his  repast  under  an 
olive  tree  in  full  blossom  :*  in  his  eating  of  a  roasted  kid 
under  a  spreading  vine,f  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the 
place  where  Troy  stood  ;  of  people's  sheltering  under 
plane  trees  after  a  scorching  ride.J  I  do  not  recollect 
that  Dr.  Chandler  mentions  oaks,  in  particular,  but  as 
they  choose  those  trees  that  are  most  shady,  the  thick 
oaks,  as  they  are  called  in  Scripture,^  must  have  been 
made  use  of,  when  they  happened  on  them,  as  commonly 
as  any  tree.  Homer  himself  mentions  the  taking  a  re- 
past, by  the  harvest  men  of  a  prince,  under  an  oak.^  So 
the  ancient  Jews  are  represented  as  sitting  under  oaks,  in 
their  journeying. [| 

Doubdan  complains  of  his  meeting  with  some  incivility, 
from  some  of  those  that  were  assembled  under  the  oaks 
between  Tyre  and  Sidon;  but  if  that  was  not  more  in  ap- 
prehension, owing  to  his  timidness,  than  in  reality,  it  is 
certain  that  they  are  not  wont  to  be  unsociable,  when 
they  take  their  repose  under  the  trees,  and  the  rocks,  but 
very  willingly  admit  or  join  the  company  of  other  travel- 
lers. So  Dr.  Chandler  tells  us,  in  his  Travels  in  Asia 
Minor,  that  some  families  that  were  sitting  beneath  some 
trees,  by  a  rill  of  water,  invited  them  to  alight,  and  par- 
take of  their  refreshments,  saluting  them  when  they  met.** 
In  another  place  he  speaks  of  some  Turks  coming  to 
them,  and  joining  their  company,  one  of  whom  desired 
some  wine  :  when  he  took  his  turban  from  his  head,  kiss- 
ed if,  and  laid  it  aside;  and  after  drinking,  replaced  it 
with  the  same  ceremony .ff 

Such  intercourses  were  wont  then  to  be  friendly,  and 
might  not  unfrequently  be  beneficial :  by  the  intelligence 
they  might  communicate  to  one  another;  by  an  exchange 
of  provisions,   to    the   advantage  of  bo(h;  or  by  making 

•  P.  164.  t  Trav.  in  Asia  Minor,  p.  31. 

+  P.  21.  $  Ezek.  vi.  1.^.  ^  II.  18,  559. 

II  1  Kings  xiii.  14;  to  which  may  he  added,  J^idges  vi.  II. 

••  P.  250.  Ij-  f».  201. 


LII  MISCELLANEOUS  OBSERVATIONS  ON  THE 

some  other  agreements  which  might  be  useful  to  both 
parties.  But  Hector  observes,  that  he  could  not  expect 
!o  meet  with  Achilles  in  the  like  friendlj'  manner,  and  to 
settle  any  such  beneficial  arrangements  with  him,  as  peo- 
ple often  did  that  met  niider  a  rock,  or  some  shady  tree, 
to  refresh  themselves  when  heated  with  journeying. 

The  particle  oLita  which  is  translated  in  this  note  from 
and  about :  from  an  oak  and  from  a  rock  ;  or  about  an 
oak  and  about  a  rock  ;  signifies,  I  should  apprehend,  on 
account  of  or  something  of  that  kind  :  "  There  is  no  room 
to  expect  to  talk  with  Achilles,  in  the  like  friendly  man- 
ner as  when  people  meet  each  other  on  account  of  some 
rock,  or  some  tree,  which  they  happen  upon  in  travelling, 
whose  shade  invites  them  to  repose  themselves  some  time 
under  them."* 

The  same  reasons  that  induce  travellers  to  take  their 
refreshment,  and  to  converse  together  under  trees 
and  rocks,  must  have  induced  the  Grecian  lovers  to 
do  the  like,  when  they  were  allowed  the  liberty  of 
freely  conversing  together,  as  it  seems  they  were  in 
the  time  of  Homer,  though  such  freedoms  are  not 
now  allowed  in  Greece,  any  more  than  in  the  rest  of  the 
East.  Accordingly,  Dr.  Shaw  informs  us,  where  the 
Eastern  youths  can  take  the  liberty  with  the  other  sex, 
as  they  can  with  their  concubines,  they  are  wont  to  at- 
tend them  with  wine  and  music  in  the  fields,  where  we 
are  sure  they  sit  not  exposed  to  the  sun,  but  in  some  place 
of  shade;  just  as  he  says,  in  the  next  paragraph,  that  the 
Arab  in  those  countries  does  nothing  all  the  day  long, 
but  loiter  at  home,  smoke  his  pipe,  and  repose  himself  un- 
der some  neighbouring  shade.f 

•  The  preposition  a.vo  is  used  in  this  sense  in  the  New  Test.  Matt.  xiii. 
44,  ch.  xviii.    John  xxi.  6,  and  elsewhere. 

f  P.  234.  "  There  are  several  Turkish  and  Moorish  youths,  and  no 
small  part  likewise  of  the  unmarried  soldiers,  who  attend  their  concubines, 
with  wine  and  music,  into  the  fields ;  or  else  make  themselves  merry  at 
the  tavern  ;  a  practice,  indeed,  expressly  prohibited  by  their  religion,  but 
what  the  necessity  of  the  times,  and  the  uncontrolable  passions  of  the 
transgressors,  oblige  these  governments  to  dispense  with." 


GREEK  AND  ROMAN  CLASSICS.  LUI 

OBSERVATION  IV. 

CRITICISM  ON  A  REMARKABLE    PASSAGE  IN  THE  RUDEN8 
OF    PLAUTC8. 

Though  a  school  boy  might  think  there  was  no  diffi- 
culty in  translating  the  words  of  Sceparnio,  in  the  begin- 
ning of  the  Rudens  of  Plautus,  after  having  been  told  that 
the  wind  he  refers  to  was  a  very  violent  one : 


-Omnis  de  tecto  deturbavit  tegulas ; 


Ulustrioris  fecit,  fetjestra«que  indidit."* 

So  violent  indeed  the  youth  would  say,  "  as  that  it 
forced  oflfall  the  tiles  from  the  roof:  made  the  windows 
more  lightsome,  and  even  formed  new  ones  :'*  jet  one 
more  knowing,  and  habituated  to  compare  one  thing  with 
another,  might  have  heard  that  the  roofs  of  the  Eastern 
houses  are  wont  now  to  be  flat,  and  used  for  walking  up- 
on, &c.  were  so  in  the  days  of  Plautus,  and  long  before 
his  time  ;f  and  for  that  purpose  are  made  of  strong  mor- 
tar, so  prepared  as  quickly  to  assume  the  hardness  of 
stone,|  or  other  very  firm  and  solid  materials  ;  1  say,  such 
a  one  might  be  surprised  that  Plautus  should  represent 
the  covering  of  an  Eastern  house  as  blown  off  by  the 
wind,  and  should  even  suppose  it  was  formed  of  reeds: 

*'  Quia  tu  in  paludem  is,  cxsicasque  armulines, 
Qui  pertegamus  villain,  diim  sudum'st  ?"§ 

There  is  however  a  passage  in  Irwin's  Travels  up  the 
Red  Sea,  that  perfectly  removes  the  difficulty.  It  is  that 
in  which  he  describes  (he  House  in  which  he  and  his 
companions  were  lodged  at  Cosire.  "  One  of  the  present 
subjects  of  our  apprehension  is,  that  the  house  we  live 
in  will  not  last  our  time,  should  the  caravan  meet  with 
further  delays.  The  rafters  are  of  the  date  tree,  and  in- 
stead of  plank  or  tiles,  the  floor  is  composed  of  rushes 

*  Act.  i.  1.  V.  5,  6.  t2.  Sam.  xL  2.  Neh.  viii.  16,  he 

i  Shaw's  TraTels,  p.  306.  §  Act.  i.  2.  v.  H,  35. 


LTV  MISCELLANEOUS  OBSERVATIONS  ON  THE 

laid  close  together.  On  this  loose  sand  is  placed,  and 
over  all  the  coarse  mats  of  the  country.  Materials  of 
this  sort  must  have  a  wonderful  elasticity  in  them ;  and 
every  step  we  take  is  attended  by  an  universal  tremor 
of  the  house.  Neither  would  a  stranger  imagine  that  we 
were  better  provided  in  regard  to  the  roof.  This  is  form- 
ed of  nothing  stronger  than  rushes,  on  which  stones  are 
heaped,  to  prevent  their  being  scattered  by  the  winds. 
But  in  this  settled  climate  the  native  requires  no  defence, 
but  against  the  rays  of  the  sun ;  thunder  and  lightning 
being  almost  unknown  to  him  ;  and  even  rain  a  very  un- 
common visitor.  By  the  accounts  of  the  inhabitants,  no 
rain  has  fallen  at  Cosire  for  these  three  years  past ;  nor 
does  it  ever  exceed  a  shower  or  two,  when  it  comes. 
Of  this  the  structure  of  their  remaining  houses  is  an  un- 
questionable proof;  for  being  rebuilt  with  mud,  and  half 
thatched  with  rushes,  one  day  of  rain  would  mix  them 
with  their  mother  earth."* 

Cosire  was  a  seaport  town  in  Upper  Egypt,  on  the 
coast  of  the  Red  Sea  ;  Plautus  lays  his  scene  on  the  sea- 
coast  of  a  country  adjoining  to  Egypt,  where  it  rains  but 
seldom,  though  perhaps  somewhat  oftener  than  at  Cosire- 
"We  may  then  reasonably  believe  that  the  house  of  Sce- 
parnio's  master,  supposed  to  be  a  person  indeed  of  some 
figure,  but  in  a  state  of  exile,  and  consequentlyaffliction, 
was  not  much  better,  if  at  all  more  securely  built,  than 
that  at  Cosire  in  which  they  were  lodged,  which  we  are 
told  was  the  best  in  the  town,  though  little  better  than 
an  English  barn.f 

If  built  after  the  manner  of  this  house  at  Cosire,  it  is 
not  surprising  that  the  rushes,  or  reeds  and  stones  which 
covered  it,J  should  be  blown  oflf  and  scattered,  and  that 
it  should  become  necessary  to  procure  more.  Being 
built  too  of  mud,  or  clay,  as  Sceparnio  describes  it,  it  is 

•  P.  144.  t  p.  19-2. 

^  Tegul»  here  not  signifying  tiles  exclusively,  but  the  things,  whatever 
they  were,  that  covered  th*  house,  v,hic!i  here  were  reeds,  with  something 
heavy  to  keep  them  down. 


GREEK  AND  ROMAN  CLASSICS,  LV 

no  wonder  that  not  onlj  the  lattice  work  and  shutters  of 
the  windows  were  blown  down,  and  by  that  means  made 
more  lightsome ;  but  that  holes  should  be  made  too  in 
the  clay  walls,  which  Sceparnio  jocosely  dignified  with 
the  appellation  of  windows.  His  master  even  compares 
them  to  the  holes  of  a  sieve.* 

Though  then  Plautus  painted  with  very  strong  and 
coarse  colours,  his  representation  of  the  effects  of  a  vio- 
lent storm  of  wind  on  a  house  in  Cyrene,  on  the  seashore, 
however  ludicrous,  is  not  at  all  unnatural,  but  perfectly 
conformable  to  the  description  of  Irwin's  hotel  at  Cosire. 

The  editor  of  the  Dauphin  edition  takes  no  notice  of 
this  difficulty,  arising  from  the  mention  of  reeds  in  the 
case  of  an  Eastern  house,  unless  Patrick  has  curtailed  his 
notes  ;  and  he  makes  the  light  thrown  into  the  house  to 
refer  to  the  blowing  off  the  tiles,  or  covering  of  the,  roof,f 
instead  of  referring  that  expression  to  the  carrying  away 
of  the  shutters,  or  perhaps  the  lattice  work  from  the 
windows,  both  of  which,  is  very  well  known,  are  common- 
ly used  in  the  houses  of  those  countries. 

The  making  the  windows  more  lightsome  will  appear 
in  a  still  stronger  point  of  view,  if  it  should  be  supposed 
they  were  closed  with  some  semitransparent  substance. 
This  supposition  is  by  no  means  necessary,  but  might, 
possibly,  be  meant  by  Sceparnio.  Thus  Niebuhr,  in  the 
2d  tome  of  his  voyages  in  the  countries  near  Arabia, 
gives  this  account  of  the  houses  of  Bombay,  which  he 
visited  in  his  Eastern  tour. J  "There  the  English  make 
use  of  glass  in  their  windows ;  where  there  is  no  glass 
they  use  very  thin  shells,  enchased  in  wood  work,  in  rows, 
which  make  those  apartments  very  obscure.  However 
these  windows  are  better  in  the  time  of  rain,  than  lattices 
of  wood  or  iron,  or  shutters,  as  the  first  do  not  entirely 
keep  out  the  rain,  and  the  last  prevents  the  light  entering 
into  the  apartments." 

*  Act.  i.  2.  V.  1&.  t"''"t''Iori8  fecit ;  id  est,  fecit  ados  clsrioreSj 

dpjectis  teg'lliu.  t  I*-  •'> 


Vn  MISCELLANEOUS  OBSEKVATIONS  ON  THE 

OBSERVATION  V. 

CURIOUS  ILLUSTRATION  OF  A  PASSAGE   IN  TIBULLU8. 

I  HAD  occasion,  in  a  preceding  volume,  just  to  touch 
on  the  vats  used  in  the  East  for  making  their  cheese.  I 
would  here  set  down  Dr.  Shaw's  account  of  them  more 
distinctly,  as  affording  a  proper  comment  on  a  passage  of 
Tibullus,  of  which  the  Doctor  has  taken  no  notice,  though 
he  has  frequently  referred  to  classic  writers  in  other  cases. 

The  passage  of  Tibullus  is  in  the  third  elegy  of  his  2d 
book,  ver.  15,  &c. 

"  Ipse  Deus  solitus  stabutis  expellere  vaccas, 
Et  potum  fessas  ducere  fluminibus ; 
£t  miscere  novo  docuisse  coagula  lacte, 

Lacteus  &  mistis  obriguisse  liquor. 
'twciafiscella  levi  detexta  est  vimine  junci, 
Raraque  per  nexus  est  via  facta  sero." 

Have  any  of  the  editors  of  Tibullus  furnished  so  in- 
structive a  note  on  these  lines,  as  the  following  paragraph 
from  Dr.  Shaw's  Travels  ?  *  "  Here  the  sheep  and  the 
goats  contribute  also  to  the  dairies,  particularly  in  the 
making  of  cheese.  Instead  of  runnet,  especially  in  the 
summer  season,  they  turn  the  milk  with  the  flowers  of 
the  great  headed  thistle,  or  wild  artichoke :  and  putting 
the  curds  afterward  into  small  baskets  made  with  rushes, 
or  with  the  dwarf  palm,  they  bind  them  up  close,  and 
press  them." 

The  cheese  vats  of  Barbary,  and  that  of  Tibullus,  seem 
to  be  perfectly  the  same ;  and  Dr.  Shaw  at  the  same  time 
shows,  that  the  Roman  poet  has  very  properly  used  the 
plural,  when  he  spoke  of  their  way  of  coagulating  milk, 
since  they  use  a  greater  variety  than  our  dairy  women  do, 
not  only  runnet,  but  the  flowers  of  the  wild  artichoke, 
to  which  may  be  added  churn-milk,  which,  according  to 
de  la  Roqu€,t  is  used  by  the  Bedouin  Arabs. 

*  P.  168,  quarto  ed.  ,  t  Voy.  Jlans  la  Palestine,  p.  200, 


GREEK  AND  ROMAN  CLASSICS.     *'  LVU 

OBSERVATION  VI. 

OF    THE    MURRINE    CUPS    USED  BY    THE    ANCIENTS. 

There  was  a  sort  of  cups  used  by  the  ancient  Romans 
called  mtirn'we,  which  were  reckoned  extremely  precious 
by  them:  so  much  so,  Ihat  the  modesty  of  Augustus  was 
rendered  indisputable,  according  to  Suetonius,^  by  his 
retaining  only  one  murrine  cup  at  the  taking  Alexandria 
in  Egypty  of  all  the  royal  utensils  there,  and  his  soon  aftec: 
melting  down  all  the  vessels  of  gold,  even  those  of  most 
common  use. 

The  editor  of  the  Dauphin  edition  of  Suetonius,  has 
given  us  a  note  of  considerable  length  upon  this  passage. 
In  it  he  tells  us,  that  Pliny  believed  the  murra,  put  of 
which  these  cups  were  formed,  was  a  stone,  which  he 
ranked  among  the  other  precious  stones  :  that  Seneca  and 
Martial  seem  to  have  been  of  the  same  opinion  :  but  that 
Joseph  Scaliger  was  induced,  by  a  passage  of  Propertius, 
to  believe  that  the  murra  was  the  matter  of  which  our  por- 
celain vessels  are  formed.  The  doubt  seems  to  remain 
still  in  the  minds  of  the  learned,  who  appear  to  be  rather 
inclined  to  the  notion  entertained  by  Pliny  :  for  Ainsworth, 
in  his  very  accurate  Dictionary,  explains  the  word  murra 
in  these  terras*:  "A  stone  of  divers  colours,  clear  as  crys- 
tal, of  which  they  made  cups  to  drink  in,  or,  as  some, 
porcelain  dishes." 

The  passage  in  Propertius,  which  led  Scaliger  to  be- 
lieve porcelain  was  meant,  is  as  follows : 

*  0 

"  Seu  qux  palmifcrsB  mittant  venalia  Thebse 
Murrheiique  in  Parthis  pocula  cocta  focis." 

Lib.  iv.  El.  5.  v.  25,  26. 

Four  things  are  evidently  supposed  by  Propertius  in 
the  last  line  ;  1.  that  these  murrine  vessels  were  earthen- 
ware, or  the  production  of  the  pottery  ;  2.  that  they  were 
extremely   precious  j  3,  that   this   valuable    matter  was 

'  Augustus,  sect.  71. 
VOL.    I.  8 


LVlll  MISCELLANEOUS  OBSERVATIONS  ON  THE 

generally,  if  not  always,  so  far  as  lie  knew,  formed  into 
cups ;  and  4.  that  he  believed  them  to  have  been  made 
n  Parthia. 

One  thing  that  may  have  inclined  many  of  the  learned 
to  suppose  these  murrine  cups  were  not  porcelain,  may 
have  been,  its  being  much  more  commonly  called  china, 
or  china  ware :  being  sensible  that  the  knowledge  that 
the  Romans  had  of  (he  remote  countries  of  (he  East  did 
not  reach  to  China,  or  near  that  country  ;  and  supposing 
that,  until  very  lately,  the  art  of  making  porcelain  was  no 
where  known  but  in  the  Chinese  empire. 

Propertius  however  supposes,  these  murrine  cups  were 
made  by  the  potters  of  Parthia.  Sir  John  Chardin  has 
informed  us  accordingly,  that  very  fine  porcelain  was  made 
in  Persia,  in  the  last  century  ;  and,  as  he  elsewhere  tells 
us,  the  Persians  are  not  very  ready  at  adopting  modern 
arts,*  we  have  reason  to  believe  this  was  an  ancient  manu- 
facture among  them  ;  and  from  this  passage  of  Proper(ius»,i 
we  may  believe  it  was  as  old,  at  least,  as  the  time  of  Au- 
gustus. 

The  account  this  eminent  traveller  has  given  us  of  the 
Persian  porcelain,  is  in  the  2d  tome  of  his  Travels  in 
French,  p.  80  and  81,  and  is  to  this  purpose.  "  Enamel- 
led vessels,  or  porcelain,  is  one  of  their  most  beau{iful 
manufactures.  It  is  not  confined  to  one  particular  part  of 
Persia.  The  most  beautiful  of  their  porcelain  is  made  at 
Shiras,  the  capital  of  that  province,  which  is  distinguished 
from  (he  other  provinces  of  that  country  by  the  name  of 
Persia,  properly  so  called  ;  at  Metched,  the  capital  of 
Bactriana ;  at  Yesd,  and  at  fikman,  in  Caramania ; 
and  in  particular  in  a  town  of  Caramania  called  Zo- 
rende.  The  earth,  of  which  these  vessels  are  made, 
is  a  pure  enamel,  within  as  well  as  without,  like  the  Chinese 
porcelain.  Its  grain  is  as  fine,  and  it  is  as  transparent :  so 
that  of  Persia,  oftentimes,  cannot  be  distinguished  from 
that  of  China.  That  of  Persia  even  sometimes  excels  the 
Chinese  porcelain,  its  varnish  is  so  exquisite.  This,  how. 
ever,  is  to  be  understood  not  of  the   old  China,  but  the 

•  Voyages,  tome  2,  chap.  17. 


.    ain     CiREEK  AND  ROMAN  CLASSICS.       '  UX 

tiew.'  To  the  year  1666,  an  ambassador  of  the  Diifcti  East 
India  Corapanj,  having  brought  many  things  of  value,  to 
present  to  the  Persian  court,  and  among  the  rest  fiftysix 
pieces  of  old  Chinese  porcelain,  when  the  King  saw  them 
he  fell  a  laughing,  asking  with  an  air  of  contempt  what  they 
were.  It  is  said  that  the  Dutch  frequently  mix  this  Per- 
sian porcelain  with  that  of  China  in  what  they  send  to 
Holland Able  workmen,  in  this  manufactory,  at- 
tribute the  beauty  of  the  colours,  in  this  kind  of  ware,  to 
the  water  that  is  made  use  of,  some  kinds  of  water  mak- 
ing the  paint  run,  while  others  do  not    produce    such   an 

effect The  Persian  porcelain  resists  fire,  so  as  not 

only  to  admit  the  making  water  to  boil  in  if,  but  vessels  for 
boiling  are  made  of  it.  It  is  so  hard,  that  mortars  are 
made  of  it  for  grinding  colours,  and  pounding  other  things, 
and  moulds  for  making  bullets.  The  materials  of  which 
this  beautiful  porcelain  is  made,  are  glass  and  small  peb- 
bles, found  in  rivers,  ground  very  small,  with  a  little  mix- 
ture of  earth. 

"  Porcelain  is  not  made  in  the  Indies.  What  is  con- 
sumed there  is  all  imported,  either  from  Persia,  or  Japan, 
or  China,  and  the  other  kingdoms  between  China  and 
Pegu." 

He  adds  to  the  account  a  story  fhat  is  current  in  Per- 
sia, and  which,  jf  true,  is  a  strong  proof  of  the  abilities  of 
the  potters  of  that  country.  It  seems  it  was  said  there, 
"that  the  potters  of  the  city  of  Yesd,  in  Caramania,  sent 
one  day  to  the  potters  of  Ispahan,  as  it  were  in  defiance,  a 
porcelain  vessel,  which  ,would  hold  a  dozen  pounds,  or 
pints,  of  water,  and  wfighed  only  the  eighth  part  of  an 
ounce.'* 

Parthia  and  Persia  mean  the  same,  or  nearly  the  same 
empire  ;  they  then  that  read  this  account  of  Chardin, 
will  not  wonder,  that  precious  vessels  of  this  kind  should 
be  brought  to  Egypt,  and  known  among  the  Romans  • 
and  will  see  that  Pliny  was  not  misinformed,  when  he  de- 
scribes these  vessels  as  brought  from  Caramania,  for 
though  this  ware  is  made  now  in  other  parts  of  that   em- 


iX  MISCELLANEOUS  OBSERVATIONS  ON  THE 

pire,  yet  most  of  the  towns  he  distinctly  mentions  are  in 
Caramania,  and  the  most  curious  workmen  in  that  manu< 
factory,  it  seems,  reside  there  still. 

How  Pliny  came  to  be  less  acquainted  with  the  nature 
of  that  substance,  of  which  these  precious  vessels  were 
formed,  than  an  elder  writer,  at  the  same  time  a  poet,  who 
only  mentions  them  occasionally,  while  Pliny  was  a  pro- 
fessed naturalist,  whose  business  it  was  to  inquire  curi- 
ously into  matters  of  this  sort,  is  extremely  astonishing ; 
and  does  no  honor  to  his  care,  in  making  inquiries  con- 
cerning those  matters  about  which  he  wrote. 

The  Dauphin  editor  of  Suetonius,  seems  to  have  been 
as  unacquainted  with  any  manufactory  of  this  kind  in  the 
East  now,  excepting  in  China,  as  Pliny  himself. 

We  may,  however,  justly  suppose,  I  apprehend,  that 
these  pieces  of  ancient  Parthian  porcelain  were  not  beau- 
tified, as  now,  with  curious  paintings,  representing  flow- 
ers, human  figures,  landscapes,  &c.  for  then  Pliny  could 
hardly  have  supposed  these  cups  were  made  of  natural 
stone ;  no,  though  he  might  have  seen  those  Mocha 
stones,  in  which  such  curious  ramifications,  and  odd  fig- 
ures appear,  as  sometimes  seem  to  resemble  landscapes  ; 
porcelain,  like  that  of  our  times,  must  have  appeared,  to 
him,  to  have  been  artificial.  ^ 

It  should  seem  then,  that  their  beauty  consisted  in  the 
liveliness  of  the  respective  colours  that  appeared  in  each 
cup,  like  those  of  our  coloured  vessels  of  glass ;  or,  at 
most,  in  the  curious  streaks  of  (wo  different  colours  in  one 
and  the  same  cup,'as  there  appear  strata,  or  veins,  of  dif- 
ferent colours  in  the  onyx,  blacli^  or  brown  and  white. 

On  account  of  which  likeness,  perhaps  it  is,  that  Pro- 
perlius  elsewhere  calls  the  onyx  murrine, 

"  Et  crocir.o  nares  murrhcus  ungat  onyx."* 
*  Lib.  3,  El.  10,  V.  22. 


Jif;      GREEK  AND  ROMAN  CLASSICSv     117  LXI 

EU  •Mtiiaoitiir  ^ofoJa^  ,  ,   , 

'"'^ *■***•"  "*'tOBSERVATION   VII.^     ,Mnm"p-t  ^ 

ON'  Horace's   opinion  of  the   excellence  of  the 

FLESH  OF  THOSE  GOATS  WHICH  WERE  FED  ON  VINES. 

Horace  supposes  the  flesh  of  goats,  fed  opon  vines, 
was  the  most  delicious  of  anj  of  that  kind  of  food : 

"  Vinea  sabmittit  capreas  non  semper  edttles." 
Sat.  lib.  ii.  sat.  4,  v.  43. 

"The  vine-fed  goats  not  always  liucioas  fare." 

Francis. 

The  Dauphin  commentator  onlj  cites  a  passage  here 
from  Virgil,  in  which  he  speaks  of  the  fondness  of  goats, 
sheep,  neat  cattle,  &c.  for  the  leaves  and  young  shoots  of 
vines,  which  were  therefore  to  be  carefully  fenced  about. 
But  such  short  stolen  repasts  could  not  be  supposed  to 
^  make  any  great  alteration  in  the  flavour  of  their  flesh, 
"  or  to  occasion  their  being  chosen  for  slaughter  on  that  ac- 
count. 

A  passage  from  Dr.  Richard   Chandler's  Travels,  in 
the  Lesser  Asia,   would  furnish  a   much  better  note  on 
this  line  of  Horace,  in  which  he  speaks,  with  some  sur- 
prise, of  his  finding  some  vineyards  still  green,  in  (he  be- 
''•     ginning  of  October,  belonging  to  a  town  situated  on  a  hill 
"      between  Aissaluck  and  ScalaNova;  whereas  he  informs 
*'      us,  about  Smyrna,  the  leaves  were  decayed,  or  stripped 
by  the  camels  and  herds  of  goats,  which  are  admitted  to 
browse  upon  them  after  the  vintage.* 

The  vineyards  then,  it  seems,  are  the  intended  pas- 
tures for  goats  in  autumn,  and  might  be  supposed  to  af- 
ford a  sort  of  food  that  made  their  flesh  more  delicious 
than  the  common  herbage  of  the  fields,  but  this  method 
of  fattening  them  does  not,  it  seems,  always  answer. 

*  P.  142. 


9r 


Uui  MISCELLANEOUS  OBSERVATIONS  ON  THE 

OBSERVATION  vill.^""*^  ""^'^  *;• 

OK  THE  GREASY  WATER  MENTIONED  BY  HOR ACEj.SA**'' 

LIB.  2,  VER.  68,  69.  B».>in? 

IlHv:  greasy  watery  mentioned  by  Horace  in  the  second 
satire  of  his  second  book,*  as  given  by  Nsevius,  a  man  of 
the  most  parsimonious  turn,  to  his  guests,  has  not  been 
well  explained  by  commentators,  but  is  capable  of  a  clear 
explanation  from  books  of  travels. 

The  editor  of  the  Dauphin  edition  explains  this  unc- 
tarn  aquarUy  of  water  that  was  muddy,  or  mixed  with 
something  filthy  when  taken  up  ;  but  it  is  probable,  that 
it  rather  refers  to  an  oiliness,  that  the  water  contracted, 
from  its  being  brought  in  foul  leathern  bottles. 

The  Persians,  according  to  Sir  John  Chardin,  use 
leather  bottles,  and  find  them  of  service  to  keep  water 
fresh,  especially  if  people  are  careful  to  moisten  them, 
when  they  travel  wherever  they  meet  with  water.  To 
this  he  adds,  "  that  the  water  does  not  taste  of  the  leath- 
er, for  that  they  take  that  otT,  by  causing  it  to  imbibe 
rosewater,  when  it  is  new,  and  before  they  make  use 
of  any  of  these  vessels.  And  that  formerly  the  Persians, 
according  to  report,  when  they  journied,  perfumed  these 
leather  vessels,  in  which  they  carried  their  water,  with 
mastic,  or  with  incense." 

But  though  the  polite  Persians  take  such  care  of  their 
water  vessels,  all  in  the  East  are  not  so  exact  now ;  and 
we  may  believe,  therefore,  all  among  the  old  Romans  were 
not  so  very  careful.  Irwin,  I  remember,  complains  of 
some  water,  which  was  fetched  for  him  from  the  moun- 
tains near  Cosire,  in  the  Upper  Egypt,  and  on  the  shore 
of  the  Red  Sea,  and  which  water  was  esteemed  better 
than  that  drank  in  common,  by  the  people  of  that  town, 

*  Nee  sic  ut  simplex  Nxvius,  unctam 

t/Onvivis  ptscbcbit  aquam.    Yitium  hoc  quoque  magnum.       V.  68,  69. 


GREEK  AND  ROMAN  CLASStCS.  lxiH 

from  a  spring  that  was  nearer  them  ;  but  this  water,  fetch- 
ed from  the  mountains,  he  complains  had  an  oily  disagree- 
able taste,  from  the  skins  having  been  newly  soaked  in 
this  disgustful  liquid,  to  prevent  their  leaking.  In  the 
succeeding  page  he  observes,  that  the  Arabs,  whose  busi- 
ness it  is  to  keep  the  skins  in  order,  are  too  lazj  to  attend 
to  the  cleanliness  of  the  insidesof  them. 

That  the  ancient  Romans  were  acquainted  with  goat 
skin  bottles,  is  evident  from  two  lines  of  Virgil,* 

♦  .......  ^.  ...  .  Inter  pocula  Iseti 

..^.    Mollibus  in  pratis  unctos  saliere  per  u/re;." 

Thai  circumstances  clearly  determine,  that  they  were 
leather  bottles,  which  were  oiled  on  the  outside,  to  make 
them  more  slippery,  and  more  likely  to  cause  those  to 
fall  that  hopped  upon  them.  Whether  these  were  in 
general  use  among  the  old  Romans,  or  the  use  of  them 
con6ned  to  their  peasantry,  we  need  not  stay  to   inquire. 

The  same  reason  that  makes  it  necessary  to  oil  these 
water  vessels,  among  the  Arabs,  from  time  to  time,  must 
in  some  degree  have  obliged  the  Romans  to  make  use 
of  the  same  remedy ;  which  the  parsimonious  Najvius 
might  as  little  attend  to,  as  the  people  of  Cosire.  This 
clearly  explains  the  meaning  of  the  word  unctam. 

The  usefulness  of  applying  Eastern  customs  to  the 
Classics,  as  well  as  the  Scriptures,  is  sufficiently  proved 
by  a  slip  of  this  very  ingenious  translator  of  Horace,  who 
gives  us  this  note  on  a  passage  of  the  second  epistle  of 
his  second  book :  "  the  ancients  carry  their  money  in  a 
purse  tied  to  their  girdles,  from  whence  we  find  in  Plautus, 
Sector  Zonarius,  a  cut  purse  :"  whereas,  according  to 
Dr.  Shaw,  the  present  purses,  in  the  Levant,  are  not  tied 
to  their  girdles,  but  a  part  of  the  girdle  itself:  "  they  are 
made  to  fold  several  times  about  the  body ;  one  end  of 
which  being  made  to  double  back,  and  sewn  along  its 
edges,  serves  them  for  a  purse,  agreeable  to  the  accepta- 

•  Geor.  ii.  v.  383,  384. 


J  'J  ,!■.<; 


£ijf  MISCELLANEOUS  OBSERVATIONS  ON  THE 

(ron  of  the  ^covt]v  in  the  Scriptures."*  He  might  have 
added,  and  of  the  Roman  writers. 

OBSERVATION  IX. 

A  CDRIOUS  ILLUSTRATION  OF  A  PASSAGE  IN  PERSIUS. 

Observations  made  by  travellers  into  the  East,  may 
be  thought  to  place  a  remarkable  passage  of  Persius  in  a 
better  light,  than  has  been  done  by  all  the  notes  upon  it> 
in  the  Variorum  edition  of  that  writer. 

The  passage  I  refer  to  is  in  the  5th  satire  of  Persius  : 

'' At  cum 

Herodis  venere  dies,  unctaque  fenestra 

Dispositx  pingaem  nebulam  vomuere /ucern<e,  "vj-'.^j 

Portantes  violas;  rubrumque  amplexa  catiaum 
Cauda  natat  thynni ;  tutnet  alba  fidelia  vino  : 
Labra  moves  tacitus,  recatitaque  sabbata  pallet-" 

Ver.  179—184. 

'  The  first  remark  I  would  make  is,  that  as  the  lighting 
up  of  many  lamps  is  frequent  in  those  countries,  in  times 
of  great  rejoicing,  so  among  the  Jews  it  seems  to  have 
been  done  with  such  profusion,  when  they  celebrated  the 
feast  of  the  dedication  of  the  altar,  of  which  we  read  in 
the  gospel  of  St.  John,  ch.  x.  22,  that  from  thence  it 
should  seem  to  have  derived  its  distinguishing  appella- 
tion, being  called  <p«T<»,  or  the  feast  of  lights. 

That  feast  of  dedication  mentioned  by  St.  John,  or  the 
solemnity  called  (pcarcn,  was  observed  in  consequence  of  an 
appointment  of  Judas  the  Maccabee  and  of  the  body  of 
the  Jews  at  that  time,  of  which  we  have  an  account  in 
1  Mac.  iv.  59.  3Ioreover,  Judas  and  his  brethren,  with 
the  whole  congregation  of  Israel,  ordained  that  the  days 
of  the  dedication  of  the  altar  should  he  kept  in  their 
season  from  year  to  year,  by  the  space  of  eight  days, 
from  Ihefive  and  twentieth  day  of  the  month  Casleu,  with 
mirth  and  gladness. 

*  P.  227. 


GREEK  AND  ROMAN  CLASSICS.  LXV 

JosepLus,  indeed,*  when  he 'gives  an  account  of  this 
festival,  and  tells  us  it  was  called  (^on^^  would  suppose  it 
derived  its  name  from  the  darkness  of  aflSiction's  being 
turned  into  joj.f  But  this  is  considered  as  an  unnatural  re- 
finement by  the  learned  j  more  especially  as  it  is  well 
knowU)  and  appears  by  the  Talmud,  that  through  the 
eight  days  of  this  solemnity  many  lights  were  wont  to  be 
set  up  in  or  about  their  houses. J  From  whence  it  was 
natural  to  denominate  the  festival  (fwr*,  lights,  in  the  plu- 
ral j  whereas,  if  the  explanation  of  Josephus  had  been 
just,  it  should  rather  have  been  called  <pwf,  lighty  in  the 
singular.^ 

2.  This  festival  of  the  Jews,  distinguished  from  others 
among  them  by  the  name  oi  {he  feast  of  lights,  and  there- 
fore it  is  to  be  supposed,  by  much  the  most  remarkable 
for  its  illuminations,  was  observed  in  the  latter  end  of  the 
month  Casleu,  which  answers  to  the  first  part  of  our  De- 
cember, and  by  their  intercalations  might  be  considerably 
later,  which,  in  that  country,  is  not  too  early  for  violets, 
which  Juvenal  supposes  were  used  as  an  additional  orna- 
ment. For  Dr.  Russell,  speaking  of  Aleppo,  which  lies 
more  to  the  north  than  Jerusalem  ;  and,  as  I  have  elsewhere 
shown,  its  productions  not  earlier,  tells  us,  that  the  severity 
of  the  winter  there  lasts  but  forty  days,  which  they  call  Ma- 
arbanie,  beginning  from  the  12th  of  December,  and  end- 
ing the  20th  of  January.  Narcissusses,  he  adds,  are  in 
flower  during  the  whole  of  this  weather,  and  hyacinths 
and  violets,  at  the  latest,  appear  before  it  is  quite  over.^ 

Their  lamps,  then,  at  the  feast  of  Dedication,  though  it 
was  celebrated  in  the  depth  of  winter,  might,  at  Jerusa- 
lem, be  adorned  with  violets  ;  though  I  should  apprehend 
the  violet  makes  not  its  appearance  about  Rome  until 
some  weeks  after,  in  which  country  Persius  wrote. 

•  Antiq.  Jud.  lib.  12,  cap.  7,  $  7,  Ed.  llaverc. 

f  Vide  DOt.  in  loc.  +  Yide  not.  in  loc. 

§  So  on  a  similar  occasion,  ■when  tliat  mighty  revolution  happened  in 
their  favonr  in  the  time  of  ^fordecai,  it  is  said  in  the  Septungint,    Te/f /{ 

H  Vol.  i.p.  69. 

roL.  I.  9 


LXVI  MISCELLANEOUS  OBSERVATIONS  ON  THE 

This  then  shows  Persius  is  speaking  of  this  Jewish 
feast  as  celebrated  in  Judea,  not  at  Rome,  nor  in  anj 
place  near  to  that  city. 

3.  It  is  very  possible,  that  the  Maccabee  festival  of 
the  Dedication  of  the  Altar,  and  the  commemorating  the 
inauguration  of  Herod  the  Great,  might  be  blended  to- 
gether, at  the  time  to  which  Persius  refers;  nor  are  we 
without  an  instance  of  a  similar  nature,  in  later  times,  in 
the  East. 

Sir  John  Chardin  tells  us,  "  that  the  Persians  observe 
only  three  religious  seasons  with  great  solemnity,  and  one 
civil   festival,  which  is  that  of  New  Year's  day.     But  if 
they  observe  but  one,    they   do  it  very  solemnly.     The 
celebration  of  it  holds   three   days,   and  in  some  places, 
particularly  at  court,   eight,   beginning  exactly  at  that 
point  of  time  that  the  sun  enters  Aries.     They  call  this 
festival  Nooroos  Sultany,  that  is,  the  Royal  or  Imperial 
New  YeaVy  distinguishing  it  from  their  ecclesiastical  New 
Year's  day.     The  ancient  Persians  observed  very  solemn- 
ly the  days  when  the  sun  came  to  each  of  the  two  solsti- 
ces, and  two  equinoxes  ;  but  more  particularly  that  of  the 
spring  equinox,  because  of  its  bringing  on  pleasant  wea- 
ther.    The  festival  held  eight  days.     Its  observance  con- 
tinued until  the  time  that  the  Mohammedans  became  mas- 
ters of  Persia,  who  introducing  a  new  epocha,  and  a  new 
way  of  computing  time,  the  ancient  custom  of  solemnizing 
the  first  day  of  the  year  sensibly  declined,  and  at  length 
totally  ceased :  people  being  disinclined  to  the  observa- 
tion, from  a  dislike  to  the  old  religion  of  the   country, 
which  they  supposed  made  a  religious  festival  of  the  first 
day  of  the  year,  in   honor  of  the   Sun,  which  appeared 
therefore  an  idolatrous  practice  to   the  followers  of  Mo- 
hammed, who  abhorred  all  sorts  of  rejoicing  therefore  on 
that  day.     Things   remained  in  this  state  till  the  year 
4r5,*  when  Jelaleddinf  coming  to  the  crown  on  the  day 

*  Of  the  Mohammedan  coroputatiQa,  ^wl  ^hout  the  year  of  our  Lord 
10S2. 

t  D'Hcrbelot  would   have    called   him    Galaleddin.    Bib.  Orieotale.  art. 
Xcurouz. 


GREEK  AND  ROMAN  CLASSICS.  lxvii 

of  the  vernal  equinox,  the  astronomers  of  the  caxfidry  took 
that  occasion  to  represent  to  him,  that  it  was  an  interposi- 
tion of  Providence,  directing  that  his  coming  to  empire 
should  happen  on  the  first  daj  of  the  year,  according  to 
the  ancient  form  of  computation,  that  so  he  might  re-estab- 
lish a  custom  that  had  been  observed  for  many  ages  in  that 
country.  The  astronomers  added,  that  if  he  should  re-es- 
lablish  this  festival  of  the  Solar  New  Year's  day,  it  would 
be  something  particular,  as  according  to  an  ancient  custom 
of  the  Persians,  who  reckoned  the  years  by  the  reign  of 
their  kings,  the  beginning  of  his  reign  would  be  the  first 
day  of  the  solar  year.  This  prince  was  pleased  with  the 
proposal,  and  re-established  the  ancient  festival  of  the 
Royal  New  Year's  day,  which  has  been  solemnized  ever 
since  with  pomp  and  acclamations.* 

Here  we  see,  the  coinciding  of  the  time  of  a  prince's 
coming  to  the  crown  with  a  remarkable  day  in  the  year, 
was  suflScient  not  merely  to  add  great  splendour  to  an  old 
observance,  but  to  revive  it  after  it  had  been  quite  extin- 
gaished,  and  give  it  a  permanent  establishment.  In  like 
manner,  if  the  day  in  which  the  Romans  conferred  royal- 
ty on  Herod,  and  settled  it  so  that  it  long  continued  in 
his  family,  happened  at  the  time  that  the  Jews  celebrated 
their  Feast  of  Lights,  it  is  no  wonder  that  in  the  time  of 
Persius,  the  illuminations  in  Judea,  and  particularly  at 
Jerusalem,  were  of  the  most  splendid  kind.  Herod  af- 
fected, it  is  well  known,  great  pomp,  and  engaged  in  great 
expenses,  to  make  the  nations  round  conceive  a  high  no- 
tion of  his  magnificence.  Accordingly,  he  obtained  the 
surname  of  Great. 

In  this  view,  it  can  be  no  wonder,  that  Persius  supposes, 
that  many  old  Romans,  who  sat  sunning  themselves,  and 
talking  over  the  sights  they  had  seen  in  their  younger 
years,  should  mention,  with  rapture,  the  Jewish  illumina- 
tions, at  which  they  had  been  present,  when  travelling  in 
Judea,  or  serving  in  the  army  there,  for  such  seems  to  me 
to  be  the  spirit  of  the  passage  : 

*  Voy.  tome  1,  p.  171,   172. 


IXVIW        MISCELLANEOUS  OBSERVATIONS  ON  THE 


'  Nostra  ut  Floralia  possint 


Aprioi  tncminisse  sfn««.-  quid  pulclirius  ?  at  cum 
Hei'odis  venere  dies,  — — — — 


Labra  moves  tacitus,  recutitaque  sabbata/>n//c«."* 

While  one  of  those  old  gentlemen  the  poet  speaks  of 
was  admiring  the  feasts  of  Flora,  and  sa^'ing  what  could 
be  more  beautiful;  another  reminded  him  of  Herod's  il- 
luminations, when  your  lips,  said  he,  moved  with  silent 
admiration,  and  you  were  pale  with  astonishment,  at 
those  festivals  of  the  circumcised. 

The  commentators  indeed  understand  this  passage  in  a 
very  different  manner.  Lubin  supposes  the  noiseless  mo- 
tion of  their  lips,  was  upon  the  occasion  of  a  silent  offering 
up  the  prayers  of  superstition ;  and  the  Teamed  Casau- 
bon  himself  apprehends,  the  words  mean  the  frequenting 
the  Jewish  Proseuchas,  and  their  praying  each  by  himself 
with  a  low  voice.     Can  this  be  the  meaning  of  Persius  ? 

I  do  not  know,  that  any  of  the  learned  have  been  able 
to  determine  precisely  the  day  of  Herod's  inauguration, 
or  the  day  when  he  was  declared  king  of  Judea ;  but,  in 
general,  it  has  been  understood  to  have  been  in  the 
winter  time,f  at  which  time  the  Feast  of  Lights  was  cele- 
brated. They  might  then,  very  probably,  coincide,  as  I 
have  been  supposing^  and  if  they  did,  no  one  will  wonder 
that  this  double  festival  was  observed  with  the  greatest 
splendour,  in  the  time  of  such  a  prince  as  Herod.     . 

The  words  may  possibly  signify  nothing  more  than 
when  the  days  came,  in  which  the  Jews,  the  subjects  of 
Herod,  were  wont  to  rejoice  with  making  illuminations  ; 
but  certainly  there  will  be  found  much  greater  energy  in 
the  words,  if  we  consider  them,  as  Casaubon  has  done, 
as  signifying  the  days,  as  they  annually  returned,  when 
Herod  was  made  king  of  Judea,  and  which  were  celebrat- 
ed from  time  to  time,  by  his  admirers,  with  great  rejoic- 

*  Pers.  Satyr,  v.  178,  &c. 
t  Vide  Jos.  Antiq.  Jud.  lib.  14,  cap.  U,  §  5,  not  r.  Ed.  llavere. 


GREEK  AND  ROMAN  CLASSICS.  LXIX 

ing.*  Some,  we  know,  were  so  warmly  attached  to  him 
as  to  be  from  thence  called  Herodians. 

4.  The  manner  in  which  these  illuminations  were  made, 
and  to  which  the  word  disposila  in  this  passage  refers, 
may  be  illustrated,  probably,  by  the  modern  usages  of  the 
East. 

Chardin  informs  us,f  as  to  the  "  Persian  illuminations, 
that  the  grand  houses  of  a  particular  place  at  Ispahan, 
when  illuminated,  have  a  slender  scaffolding  of  small  poles, 
for  the  reception  of  small  earthen  lamps.  The  houses  are 
quite  covered  with  them,  from  the  first  story  to  the  top. 
They  are  about  six  score  to  each  arch.  These  lamps 
are  so  small  as  not  to  be  minded,  except  by  very  exact 
observers ;  but  when  they  are  lighted  they  make  the  most 
brilliant  illumination  in  the  world,  for  these  lamps,  in  ally 
are  reckoned  at  50,000.  Abas  the  great  was  very  fond 
of  this  pompous  show,  and  often  gave  himself  this  pleas'* 
ure." 

In  another  place  he  speaks  of  their  illuminations  as  made 
at  the  doors  of  their  houses,  and  in  their  principal  Bazars, 
or  streets  of  shops.  J 

Small  earthen  lamps,  but  in  great  numbers,  are  now 
made  use  of  in  Persia ;  and  probably  were  used  in  the 
days  of  Herod.  By  means  of  slender  frames  of  wood- 
work they  are  placed  in  an  agreeable  order;  and  the  word 
dispositcB  supposes  that  the  Jews  were  curious  too  in 
placing  their  lamps. 

Chardin  gives  no  account  of  mixing  verdure  and  flowers 
with  the  lamps;  but  we  find,  in  de  Totl's  Memoirs,  that 
the  Feast  of  Tulips  is  held  among  the  Turks  in  the  night, 
and  lamps  and  flowers  mixed  together  then.  In  the  Jew- 
ish festival  they  were  violets  that  were  mingled  with  the 
lamps,  which  fixes  the  time  of  year  when  that  was  cele- 
brated. 

•  The  word  diet,  in  the  plural,  seems  to  show,  it  was  not  merely  tlie 
day  of  Herod's  being  made  king  ;  but  the  rejoicing,  on  that  account,  might 
be  blended  with  the  solemnizing  a  festival  of  eight  days. 

t  Voy.  tome  3,  p.  IT.  4  P.  Mo. 


I.XX  MISCELLANEOUS  OBSEBVATIOKS  ON  THE 

It  mny  not  be  disagreeable,  fo  transcribe  de  Tott's  ac- 
count of  the  Turkish  Feasts  of  Tulips.  "  It  is  so  call- 
ed," be  tells  us  in  a  note  in  p.  78,  of  his  first  tome,  "  be- 
cause it  consists  in  illuminating  a  garden,  and  this  fiowef 
is  what  the  Turks  admire  most."  And  in  the  text  of  Ihe 
same  page,  he  tells  us,  "  that  the  garden  of  the  Harem, 
is  the  place  in  which  these  nocturnal  entertainments  are 
given.  Vases  of  erery  kind,  filled  with  natural  and  ar- 
tificial flowers,  are  brought  for  the  occasion,  and  add  to 
the  splendour  of  an  illumination  caused  bj  an  infinite  num- 
ber of  lanterns,  coloured  lamps,  and  wax  candles,  in  glass 
tabes,  reflected  on  erery  side  by  mirrors  disposed  for 
that  purpose." 

How  pompous  modern  as  well  as  ancient  Eastern  illu- 
Diioations !  Did  the  Roman  Floralia  excel  them  in  ma'g- 
tiificence  ?  of  which,  it  should  seem  from  Persitis,  sofne 
of  the  older  Romans  were  wont  to  boast. 

OBSERTATION  X. 

OF  THE  EARTHENWARE  BOATS,  WHICH  JtTTENAL   IS   SUP- 
POSED TO  A»CRtB£  TO  THE  EGYPTIAIfS. 

jDTENAii  describes  the  boats  of  the  Egyptians  as  if 
they  were  earthenware ;  and  not  one  of  the  Variorum 
notes  explains  this,  though  it  may  be  easily  done  from 
modern  travellers. 

•*  Ha«  sarit  rabie  imbelle  &  inntife  vnlgus, 
TaTvul&Jictihbua  solitum  dare  ve\»phaseUs, 
Et  brevibus/^jc^te    remis  incurobere  testte." 

Sat.  XV.  ver.  126—128. 

This  is  the  description.  The  sum  of  the  notes  upon 
it  is  as  follows:  That  the  old  scholiast  tells  us,  such 
earthenware  ships  were  used  on  the  Nile.  That  Lubin 
cited  Strabo,  who  remarked,  that  in  the  Delta,*  naviga- 
tion was  so  easy,  that  some  used  boats  of  baked  earth. 

*  The  lowei-  part  of  Egypt. 


GAEEK  AND  ROMAN  CLASSICS.  l^KXj 

He  adds,  in  another  note,  that  such  were  used  in  some  of 
the  other  canals  of  Egypt :  and  that  thej  are  called /?ic- 
ttE,  painted,  because  these  boats  of  baked  earth  were 
marked  with  various  colours. 

Now  all  this  appears  very  strange.  That  earthenware 
may  be  so  made  as  to  swim  in  water  is  easily  apprehended  ; 
the  experiment  may  be  made  at  any  tea  table,  by  putting 
one  of  the  cups  into  a  basin  of  water.  But  that  a  boat^ 
of  a  size  to  be  of  any  use  to  the  Egyptians,  should  be 
made  of  such  materials,  and  commonly  to  be  seen  in  the 
Delta,  and  other  canals  of  Egypt,  may  appear  incredible, 
since  they  may  be  of  earth  baked  or  burnt  in  the  tire, 
which  must  be  done  with  difficulty  ;  and  when  effected, 
what  a  trifle  would  demolish  them,  and  how  unsafe  must 
be  such  a  navigation  ! 

But  all  this  is  decyphered  by  modern  travellers :  for 
all  that  is  meant,  I  presume,  is,  that  sometimes  the  Egyp- 
tians make  use  of  rafts,  which  are  made  to  float,  by  empty 
vessels  of  earthenware  fastened  underneath  them. 

"  In  order  to  cross  the  Nile,"  Norden  tells  us,*  "  the 
inhabitants  have  recourse  to  the  contrivance  of  a  float, 
made  of  large  earthen  pitchers,  tied  close  together,  and 
covered  with  leaves  of  palm  trees.  The  man  that  con* 
ducts  it,  has  commonly  in  his  mouth  a  cord,  with  which 
he  fishes  as  he  passes  on.''  These  are  undoubtedly  the 
Egyptian  earthenware  boats  of  Juvenal. 

Egmont  and  Heyman  saw  some  small  floats,  used  by  the 
Egyptian  fishermen,  which  consisted  of  bundles  of  reeds, 
floated  by  calabashes.f 

The  sails  of  such  floats,  when  they  used  any,  mmt  of 
course  have  been  very  small,  as  Juvenal  describes  them, 
perhaps  nothing  more  than  their  garment  spread  out ;  and 
their  oars  being  very  short,  used  merely  to  paddle  along, 

•  Trav.  part  I,  p.  81. 

t  Trav.  vol.  2,  p.  112.  So,  iolike  manner,  Norden  observed,  on  the  10th 
of  December,  a  float  of  straw,  supported  hj  fowi;  and  jforemed  by  two 
rata,  as  he  has  remarked  in  his.Touraal. 


LXXII        MISCELLANEOUS  OBSERVATIONS  ON  THE 

or  steer  the  float,  of  which  Norden  observed  one  instance, 
in  a  float  of  straw,  on  which  two  men  were  sitting,  and 
which  was  drag£;ed  across  the  Nile  by  a  cow,  he  that  sat  ' 
behind  steering  with  "a  little  oar,"  by  means  of  which, 
at  the  same  time,  he  kept  the  balance.*'*  Indeed,  the 
one  and  the  other  could  be  of  no  great  use  but  in  the  main 
river,  as  these  floats  must  owe  their  chief  motion  to  the 
stream  ;  the  paddles  might  be  useful  in  those  canals  where 
the  water  was  stagnant. 

The  word  piclse,  or  painted,  is  not  to  be  understood,  I 
apprehend,  as  signifying  their  being  beautified  with  a  va- 
riety of  colours;  but  means,  I  should  suppose,  their 
being  rubbed  with  some  substance  that  might  fill  up  the 
pores,  so  much  as  to  prevent  the  water's  penetrating  into 
the  cavity  of  the  pitchers,  which,  if  it  did  in  a  consider- 
able degree,  might  occasion  the  sinking  of  this  kind  of 
vessel,  for  the  Egyptian  earthenware  is  said  to  be  very 
porous. 

"  The  ewer,  though  made  very  clumsy,  is  one  of  the 
best  pieces  of  earthenware  that  they  have  in  Egypt :  for 
all  that  art  in  this  country,  consists  in  making  some  vile 
pots  or  dishes  j  and  as  they  do  not  know  the  use  of  var- 
nish, they  are,  of  consequence,  incapable  of  making  any 
work  of  that  kind,  that  does  not  leak."  This  is  Norden's 
account.f  Consequently,  some  of  them  at  least,  particu- 
larly those  of  the  lower  tier,  must  have  been  rubbed  over 
with  some  substance,  of  such  a  nature  as  to  prevent  the 
water's  penetrating  into  the  hollow  of  the  pitchers,  in  any 
great  degree. 

I  have  read  an  account  of  the  Eastern  people's  rubbing 
those  great  jars,  in  which  they  keep  their  wines  with 
mutton  suet,J  and  I  should  think,  the  word  pictae  does 
not  oblige  us  to  suppose  the  lower  pitchers  in  their  floats, 
are  rendered  water  tight,  by  means  of  a  more  beautiful 
and  costly  material.     Though  certainly  they  might,  if 

*  Trav.  part  2,  p.  145.  f  Part  h  P-  82. 

t  Voy.  Chardin^  tome  2,  p.  (JT. 


GREEK  AXD  ROMAN  CLASSICS.  LXXill 

they  pleased,  have  made  use  of  some  of  the  same  sub- 
stance with  which  they  painteditheir  hieroglyphics,  and 
with  which  Norden  was  so  charmed,  "  This  sort  of  paint- 
ing has  neither  shade  nor  degradation.  The  figures  are 
incrustated  like  the  cyphers  on  the  dial  plates  of  watches, 
with  this  difference,  that  they  cannot  be  detached.  I  must 
own,  that  this  incrustated  matter  surpasses,  in  strength, 
all  that  I  have  seen  of  this  kind.  It  is  superior  to  the  al- 
fresco and  the  Mosaic  work  ;  and  indeed  it  has  the  ad- 
vantage of  lasting  a  longer  time.  It  is  something  surpris- 
ing to  see  how  gold,  ultramarine,  and  divers  other  colours, 
have  preserved  their  lustre  to  the  present  age.  Perhaps 
I  shall  be  asked,  how  all  these  lively  colours  could  soften 
together ;  but  I  own  it  a  question  that  I  am  unable  to  de-- 
cide."* 

*^  To  close,  it  may  be  proper  to  observe,  that  these  floats 
are  not  constructed  to  pass  up  and  down  the  Nile  like 
boats,  or  properly  designed  to  carry  goods  upon  them,  if 
they  may  sometimes  occasionally  be  put  a  little  to  that 
use;  it  is  only  an  easy  way  they  have  found  out,  of  con- 
veying their  earthenware  from  Upper  Egypt,  where  it  is 
made,  to  the  lower  parts  of  that  country,  where,  when 
Ihey  arrive  at  the  designed  place,  the  float  is  taken  to 
pieces,  and  sold  to  the  inhabitants. 

OBSERVATION  XI. 

OP  THE  EAGLE  WHICH  APPEARED,  ACCORDING  TO  SUE- 
TONIUS, IN  THE  ARMr  OF  THE  EMPEROR  VITELLIUS. 

SuETON'ius  tells  US,  in  his  life  of  the  Emperor  Vitellius, 
that  a  lucky  omen  presented  itself  to  that  part  of  his  ar- 
my that  he  sent  forward  before  his  own  was  ready  to 
march :  "  An  eagle  on  the  sudden  came  flying  on  the 

•  Part  2,  p.  75,  76. 
VOL.  I.  10 


LXXir        MISCELLANEOUS  OBSERVATIONS  ON  THE 

right  hand,  and  having  wheeled  round  the  ensigns,  leis- 
urely fiew  before  them,  along  the  way  in  which  thej  were 
to  march,"* 

The  Baron  de  Tott  gives  an  accountf  of  something  very 
much  like  thia,  which  happened  to  himself,  in  his  journey 
to  Crim  Tartary,  though  it  was  a  different  kind  of  bird. 
"Our  conversation  was  frequently  interrupted  by  a  cir- 
cumstance which  would  not  deserve  notice,  had  it  not 
served  as  a  means  to  establish  me  in  the  good  opinion  of 
the  superstitious  Tartars. 

"  Just  as  we  arrived  at  the  frontiers,  and  at  the  moment 
the  escort  came  up  with  me,  a  stork,  a  kind  of  bird  which 
feeds  on  serpents,  builds  its  nest  on  the  houses,  and  is  re- 
vered by  the  Orientals  as  a  species  of  pennies,  or  house- 
hold god,  seemed,  likewise  to  come  and  welcome  me.  It 
passed  rapidly  to  the  left,  very  near  my  carriage,  flew 
round  it,  repassed  to  the  right,  then  seemed  to  lead  the 
way,  alighted  two  hundred  fathoms  before  the  foremost 
horseman.  As  they  came  up  it  rose  again,  made  the  like 
tour,  flew  forward,  and  repeated  this  kind  of  manoeuvre 
until  we  arrived  at  Kishela."J 

Events  of  this  kind,  though  not  incredible,  nor  prophet- 
ic, yet  have  something  in  them  that  cannot  but  engage  at- 
tention. The  Baron,  who  was  by  no  means  of  a  super- 
stitious turn,  as  appears  suflSciently  by  the  account  he 
gives  of  his  visiting  the  Holy  Land,  could  not  but  r«- 
mark  it  as  something  extraordinary;  the  Tartars,  accord- 
ing to  him,  considered  it  with  superstition,  as  the  old  Bo- 
mans  would  have  done. 

•  Prsemisso  agmini  Ixtum  eveuit  auspicium  ;  siquidem  k  parte  dexlra  re- 
pente  aquilaadvolavit ;  lustratisque  signis,  ingrossos  viam  sensim  antecessit 

^'^'**  ^'  t  Mem.  tome  2,  p.  42, 43- 

^  The  chief  town,  of  Bessarabia,  to  which  the  Baroa  was  going. 


GREEK  AND  ROMAN  CLASSICS.  lxxV 


OBSERVATION    XIL 

WARRIORS  SLEPT  IJf  THEIR  TENTS,  WITH  A  SPEAR  STUCK 
IN   THE   GROUND  AT  THEIR  HEAD. 

I  HAVE  remarked  in  another  part  of  this  work,  that  as 
the  carrying  a  long  pike  before  a  Company  of  Arabs  is  a 
token  that  an  Arab  sheekh,  or  prince  is  there,  so  the  fix- 
ing it  near  a  person  of  authority  points  out  his  dignity ; 
and  that  these  circumstiances  may  be  applied  to  the 
illustration  of  some  passages  of  Scripture ;  but  here  I 
would  observe,  that  it  is  quite  necessary  to  explain  a 
passage  of  Josephus,  united  with  some  other  consider- 
jttions. 

y     That  celebrated  historian,  giving  an  account  of  David's 
cnteripg  the  camp  of  Saul,  when  that  prince  and  his  peo- 
ple were  fast  asleep,  informs  us,  that  notwithstanding  the 
opportunity  he  did  no  hurt  to  Saul,  though  he  well  knew 
where  he  slept,  by  the  spear,  which  was  fixed  near  him, 
and  adds,  that  he  suiTered  not  Abishah  to  slay  him  then, 
though  he  would  fain  have  done  it.=^ 
.     English  readers,!  I  apprehend,  generally  suppose  every 
,|nan  had  his  spear  stuck  into  the  ground,  at  his  head  ;  but 
.^  Josephus  supposes  that  circumstance  distinguished  the 
jjFoyal  sleeping  place  from  that  of  every  l)ody  else,  which 
.it  would  not  have  done,  if  it  had  not  been  something  pe- 
culiar to  Saul,  distinguishing   him  from  his  officers  and 
people.     It  was,  it  should  seem  then,  a   customary   dis- 
tinction in  the  time  Josephus ;  and  he  thought  it  also  an 
usage  as  ancient  as  the  time  of  Saul. 

Perhaps  too,  (his  describing  Saul  as  known  by  the  spear 
stuck  by  him  may  intimate,  that  he  slept  with  his  face 
covered,  being  laid  on  the  ground  in  the  open  air.  Thus 
de  la  Roque  describes  the  Bedouin  Arabs  of  the  Holy 
Land,  though  in  general  they  live  under  tents,  yet  sorae- 

•  Antiq.  Ub.  6,  cap.  13,  $  9,  Ed.  Haferc.  t  Of »  Sam.  xxvi.  7. 


I.XXVi        MISCELLANEOUS  OBSERVATIONS  ON  THE 

times,  he  says,  they  sleep  in  their  clothes,  in  summer  time, 
on  the  ground,  only  covering  their  body  and  face  with  ' 
their  aba,  or  outer  garment.* 

Josephus  then,  in  all  probability,  supposes  this  expedi- 
tion was  undertaken  in  the  time  of  summer ;  and  that  Saul's 
face  was  muffled  up,  so  as  rather  to  be   known  by   the 
spear,   than  by  his   countenance,   in  a  night  sufficiently    , 
light  to  have  distinguished  him,  had  he  not  been  so  cqu^, 
ered.  '| 

It  seems  indeed  to  be  the  common  practice  of  the  Eas- 
tern people  to  sleep  with  their  faces  covered,  according 
to  Niebuhr,  and  he  supposes  Europeans  would  find  the 
benefit  of  if,  if  they  would  adopt  the  same  usage,  the  dews 
and  some  winds  being  found  to  be  very  hurtful.f 

OBSERVATION  XIII. 

ILLUSTRATION  OF  A   PASSAGE  IN  THE   BOOK  OF  JUDGES,^ 
TAKEN  FROM  JOSEPHUS,  AND  DOUBDAN's  TRAVELS. 

Our  translation  of  the  book  of  Judges,  from  the  He- 
brew, represents  Zebul  as  saying  to  Gaal,  upon  his  being 
alarmed  at  seeing  troops  of  men  making  to  him.  Thou 
seest  the  shadows  of  the  mountains  as  if  they  were  men/J 
whereas,  Josephus  represents  him  as  telling  him,  he  mis-- 
took  the  shadow  of  the  rocks  for  men. 11  ™ 

A  commentator  might  be  at  a  loss  to  account  for  this 
change,  that  had  not  read  Doubdan's  representation  of 
some  part  of  the  Holy  Land,  in  which  he  tells  us,  that  in 
those  places  there  are  many  detached  rocks  scattered  wp 
and  down,  some  growing  out  of  the  ground,^  and  others 
are  fragments,  broken  off  from  rocky  precipices,^  the 
shadow  of  which,  it  appears  Josephus  thought  might  be 
most  naturally  imagined  to  look  like  troops  of  men  at  a  dis- 
tance, rather  than  the  shadow  of  the  mountains.'*'^    '" 

*  Voy.  dans  la  Pal.  chap.  12,  p.  176.  \  Descript.  de  I'Arahie,  p.  9. 

i  Ch.  ix.  36.  Ij  Antiq.  lib,  5,  cap.  7,  sect.  4,  Ed.  Haverc. 

$  Voy.  p.  08.  ft  Ibid,  p-  453. 


*"       eREEK  AND  ROMAN  CLASSICS.  LXXVW 


OBSERVATION  XIV. 

OF  THE  CLOTHING  OF  THE  WILD  ARABS,  FROM  ST.  JEROMe 

In  St.  Jerom's  History  of  the  life  of  Malchus,  we  have 
an  account  of  some  particulars  that  are  new,  in  the  cloth- 
ing of  those  wild  Arabs,  orlshmaelites,  as  he  terms  them. 
They  are  said  to  be  half  naked  ;  but,  however,  to  have 
worn  cloaks  and  broad  coverings  for  their  legs  ;  "  Semi- 
nudo  corpore,  pallia  &  latas  caligas  trahentes." 

Cloaks,  kept  fast  by  a  button,  on  the  upper  part  of  the 
breast,  are  still  worn  by  the  Arab  horsemen,  according 
both  to  the  description  and  the  copper  plate  de  la  Roque 
has  given  us  of  them.*  This,  he  says;  is  properly  their 
riding  dress. f 

The  description  de  la  Roque  gives  of  the  vestments  is 
to  this  purpose  :  "  Doubling  a  piece  of  cloth,  they  sew 
the  edges  together,  as  if  they  were  going  to  make  a  sack, 
leaving  a  hole  at  each  of  the  corners  to  put  their  arms 
through;  that  then  they  cut  open  the  forepart,  to  put  it 
on  their  shoulders,  cutting  away  a  round  place  for  the 
neck;  and  this  is  properly  the  dress  for  wearing  on  horse- 
back. 

This  is  what  de  la  Roque  calls  an  abaSy  St.  Jerom  a 
pallium.  But  the  account  de  la  Roque  gives  of  the  cov- 
ering of  the  feet,  when  they  ride,  does  not  so  well  agree 
with  the  term  lalas  caligas,  or  broad  caligas.  The  word 
caliga  h  used  by  St.  Jerom,  to  express  that  covering 
for  the  feet  which  Christ  forbad  his  disciples  to  wear,J 
when  he  sent  them  to  preach  the  gospel  in  his  lifetime, 
and  which  are  opposed  to  sandals,  Mark  vi.  9  j  though 
St.  Jerom,  in  the  impetuosity  of  his  zeal,  supposes  the 
apostles  were  to  walk  at  times  absolutely  barefoot.  These 
caligas  then  seem  to  mean  buskinSy  or  rather  short  boots, 

•  Voj.  dans  la  Pal.  p.  3,  4.  f  P-  308. 

t  Ad  Edstochium,  de  Custodia  Virg.  torn.  1,  p.  140. 


LXXVUi      MISCELLANEOUS  OBSERVATIONS  ON  THE 

designed  to  cover  the  feet  so  entirely,  as  to  guard  them, 
as  well  as  the  lower  part  of  the  leg,  from  injury  from 
stones,  thorns,  &c.  whereas,  sandals  consisted  merely  of 
soles  at  the  bottom  of  the  feet,  fastened  by  leather  thongs, 
which  left  the  foot  very  much  uncovered,  and  open  to  in- 
juries. But  what  the  term  broad  has  to  do  with  these 
boots,  is  very  diflScuIt  to  say. 

It  will  not  be  improper,  on  this  occasion,  to  give  de  la 
Roque*s  account  of  the  Arab  riding  boots.  "  They  never 
carry  a  sabre,  but  when  they  go  out  upon  an  expedi- 
tion; they  mount  on  horseback  with  small  boots,  of  yel- 
low morocco,  without  stockings,  very  light  and  sewed 
within,  with  which  they  can  march  on  foot,  and  even  run, 
without  any  penetration  of  water  through  them."* 

As  the  motions  of  these  Arabs  are  known  to  be  very 
rapid,  and  their  horses  and  every  thing  about  them  fitted 
for  speed,  there  is  the  utmost  difficulty  in  conceiving,  for 
what  reason  they  should  make  their  boots  so  broad  as  to 
be  one  part  of  their  description  ;  at  the  same  time  we  find, 
that  they  are  now  very  small,  and  light.  They  are,  how- 
ever, still  described  as  being  of  yellow  leather,  as  a  re- 
markable circumstance ;  it  would  be  then,  I  should  ap- 
prehend, as  natural  to  suppose  there  is  a  corruption  in  the 
present  reading,  and  that  it  ought  to  be  luieas,  yelloWj 
instead  of  latas,  broad,  as  to  admit  some  guesses  of  the 
critics.  Whether  the  traces  of  such  a  reading  may  be 
found  in  any  of  the  manuscript  copies  of  St.  Jerom,  I  am 
not  able  to  say  :  I  have  no  opportunity  of  consulting 
them.f 

•  Voy.  dans  la  Pal.  p.  209. 

'\  So  Catullus  describes  Hymen,  in  his  Epithalamium  on  the  marriage  of 
Julia  and  Manlius,  as  wearing  ^e^/ow  shoes,  and  makes  use  of  the  term  lu- 
tium  to  describe  that  circumstance  .- 

"  Cinge  tempora  floribus 
Sua^e-olentis  amaraci : 
Flammeum  cape  :  Isetus  hue, 
Hue  veni,  niveo  gerens 
JjUteum  pede  soccum." 


GREEK  AND  ROMAN  CLASSICS.  LXXIX 

The  colour  of  the  leather  of  the  shoes  of  the  Roman 
nobility  themseives  was,  in  the  time  of  Juvenal,  black  as 
with  us,  as  appears  from  verses  191,  192,  of  his  7th  sa- 
Jtire  : 

"Felix,  &  sapiens,  &  noi»7j»,  generosus 

Adpositam  nigra  lunam  subtexit  alutx."  '  '•!' 

And  though  they  might  afterward  use  red  leather^  yet 
very  probably  those  of  the  lower  class  did  not,  which 
must  have  made  the  colour  of  the  Arab  boots  remarka- 
ble; sufficiently  so  to  have  this  circumstance  mentioned, 
in  the  description  of  the  surprise  Malchus  was  thrown  in- 
to, when  he  saw  them  coming  in  so  unusual  a  dress.  For 
though  the  pallium  or  cloak  was  worn  by  other  people, 
particularly  by  the  philosophers,  and  after  them  by  the 
Christians,  it  would  seem  not  to  have  been  worn  common- 
ly on  horseback,  since  it  is  mentioned  here,  as  something 
striking  in  the  appearance  of  these  Arabs.  '^y 

The  word  trahentes,  drawing  forward  what  seems  in- 
clined to  hang  back,  expresses,  in  a  lively  manner,  the 
flying  back  of  the  abas  of  the  Arab  horsemen,  and  the 
position  of  their  feet,  held  back  while  pursuing  their  prey 

with  eagerness. 
•I 

OBSERVA'tlON  XV.  ■ 

OF    THE    MILLET    BREAD    USED    IS   THE    EAST. 

St.  Jerom  supposed,  that  millet  was  used,  in  the  time 
of  the  prophet  Ezekiel,  for  the  food  of  the  meanest  sort  of 
people,  and  for  the  fattening  of  cattle  or  fowls  ;*  which 
shows,  it  was  probably  used  for  those  purposes  in  Judea, 
in  his  time.     It  is  certain  it  is  now  used  there.      ' 

For  we  find  millet  continues  to  be  sown  in  the  Holy 
Land.  Dr.  Rauwolff  found  Indian  millet,  along  with  corn, 
and  cotton,  in  the  fruitful  and  well  tilled  fields  about  Ra- 
ma.f     Niebuhr  complains  of  the  bread  made  of  millet  by 

•  Mitlium  rnsticorum  Sc  agreitinum  it  altilium  cibnaeiL  Com.  in  Ezf- 
kielem,  cap.  4. 

t  Ray'i  TrareU,  p.  229. 


LXXX  OBSERVATIONS  ON  THE  CLASSICS. 

Ihe  Arabs,  who,  he  tells  us,  eat  scarcely  any  thing  else 
but  bad  new  made  millet  bread,  kneaded  with  camel's 
milk,  or  with  oil,  with  butter  or  fat.  He  found  it  so  disa- 
greeable and  bad,  that  he  would  very  willingly  have  ex- 
changed it  for  barley  bread  ;  but  those  people,  who  are 
accustomed  to  it  from  their  infancy,  seem  to  eat  it  with 
pleasure ;  sometimes  they  even  prefer  it  to  bread  made  of 
wheat,  which  is  too  light  for  their  stomachs.* 

As  for  its  use  in  fattening  cattle,  &c.  Dr.  Shaw  tells  us, 
that  the  inhabitants  of  Barbary  very  particularly  culti- 
vate "  a  white  sort  of  millet  called  draht  which  they  pre- 
fer to  barley  in  fattening  their  cattle.  The  sparrows, 
which  in  the  open  country  build  upon  trees  only,  the  lin- 
nets, goldfinches,  and  other  little  birds,  are  so  fond  of 
this  grain,  that  when  it  grows  ripe,  they  are  obliged  to 
watch  it,  and  hinder  them  from  settling  upon  it,  by  mak- 
ing all  the  day  long,  a  perpetual  screaming  and  noise."f 

•  De»cript.  de  I'Artbie,  p.  45.  f  Trtrels.  p.  138, 


A 

SHORT  SPECIMEN 

OF    THE 
ADVANTAGE  THAT  MAY  BE  DERIVED 

-gjjgt]  FROM 

■¥i[E   GREEK  AND  ROMAN  CLASSICS, 

'  FOR    THE 

EXPLANATION  OF  VARIOUS  PASSAGES  IN    THE  SACRED    WRITINGS 

OBSERVATION  I. 

UEBOD's  jealousy,  mentioned  matt.  II.  3,    ACCOUNTED  FOR 
BY  QUOTATIONS  FROM  SUETONIUS  AND  TACITUS. 

The  Greek  and  Roman  Classics  ina^  not  only  be  illus- 
trated by  Eastern  customs  and  manners,  but  these  Clas- 
sics may  in  their  turn  illustrate  matters  of  great  import- 
ance in  the  Sacred  Writings.  The  consternation  into 
which  Herod  was  thrown  on  the  report  of  the  Eastern 
Magi,  as  mentioned  Matt.  ii.  3,  was  probablj'  occasioned 
by  the  agreement  of  their  report  with  an  opinion  pre- 
dominant in  the  East,  and  especially  in  Judea,  that  some 
great  personage  should  soon  appear,  to  whona  universal 
empire  should  be  given.  The  Jews  of  course  expected 
this  person  in  their  promised  Messiah:  the  jRowaiis  ap- 
plied it  to  one  of  their  emperors.  Suetonius  and  Tacitus, 
both  eminent  Roman  historians,  mention  this  general  per- 
suasion. Their  words  are  very  remarkable.  Percrebue- 
rat,  says  Suetonius,  Orientetoto  vetus  ^'  constans  opinio, 
esse  infatis,  ul  eo  tempore  Juded  profecti  renim  potiren- 
iur.  Id  de  Imperatore  Romano  quantum  eventu  posted, 
predidum  patuit,  Jiul  (ciad  se  trahenteSf  rebuild  runt. 
In  vit.  Vespas. 

TOL.    1.  11 


LXXXll  THE  SCRIPTURES  ILLUSTRATED  BY 

.  i  v.  y 

"An  ancient  and  settled  persuasion  prevailed  through- 
out (he  East,  that  the  Fates  had  decreed  that  some 
should  come  from  Judea  who  should  attain  universal  em- 
pire. This  persuasion,  which  the  event  proved  to  respect 
the  Roman  emperor,  the  Jews  applied  to  themselves,  and 
therefore  rebelled." 

Thp  words  of  Tacitus  are  nearly  similar:  Pluribus 
persuasio  inerat^  says  he,  antiquis  Sacerdotum  Uteris 
contineri,  eo  ipso  tempore  fore  ut  valesceret  OrienSf  pro- 
fectique  Jiidad  return  potireniur.  Qua  ambages  yes- 
pasianum  ac  Titum  predixerant.  * 

."Many  were  persuaded  that  it  was  contained  in  thean- 
Client  books  of  the  priests,  that  at  that  very  time  the  iiiast 
should  prevail,  and  that  some  should  proceed  from  Judea 
and  possess  the  dominion.  It  was  Vespasian  and  Titus 
that  were  predicted  by  these  ambiguous  prophecies."* 
The  prevalence  of  this  opinion  at  once  accounts  for  the 
perturbation,  jealousy,  and  cruelty  of  Herod.  W,  f«« 

OBSERVATION  ff.  -^^ 

KKX 

THE    PROPHECY    RELATIVE    TO    JOHN    BAPTIST,    ISA.  XL» 
.3,    FULFILLED    MATT,  JII.  3,    ILLUSTRATED  BY  A  Q,U0- 
■"  TATION  FBQM  PIODORUS  SICULUS. 

He  ' 

Sf-THE  description  which  Isaiah  gives  of  the  Harbinger 
of  Christ,  is  as  follows  :  The  voice  of  him  that  crieth  in 
the  wilderness,  Prepare  ye  the'  way  of  the  Lord,  make 
straight  in  the  desert  a  high  way  for  our  God.  Every 
valley  shall  be  exalted,  and  every  inountain  and  hill  shall 
he  made  low  ;  and  the  crooked  shall  be  made  straight, 
and  the  rough  places  plain,  ch.  xl.  3,  4. 

The  idea  here,  is  evidently  taken  from  the  practice  of 
Eastern  monarchs,  who,  whenever  they  entered  upon  an 

*  By  the  ancient  books  of  the  Priests,  Tacitus  probably  meant,  not  the 
writings  of  the  Jewish  prophets,  but  the  Sybilline  orRcles,  so  long  fsmoui 
in  the  Roman  world. 


THE  GREEK  AND  ROMAX  CLASSICS.  L^xfli 

expedition,  or  took  a  journey  through  a  desert  country, 
sent  Harbingers  before  them  to  prepare  all  things  for 
their  reception  ;  and  Pioneers  to  open  the  passes,  to  lev- 
el the  ways,  and  to  remove  all  impediments.  The  offi- 
cers appointed  to  superintend  such  preparations,  the 
Latins  called  Stratores.  /_ 

The  account  given  by  Diodords  Siculits  of  me  Mai'th 
of  Semiramis  into  Media  and  Persia  will  give  us  a  clear 
notion  of  the  preparations  of  the  way  for  a  royal  expedi- 
tion. MgT«  ^€  rctvroo  stt'  Ea^xroivaiv  t»)V  tto^uoiv  7ro;»j(r«jW€v»j, 
-ru^iyivixo TT^oi  o^og  to  Zcc^xaiov  iucKovfXivov.  k.  r.K.  "From 
thence  she  marched  toward  Ecbatane,  and  came  to  the 
mountain  called  Zarkeum,  which,  extending  many  fur- 
longs, and  being  full  of  craggy  precipices  and  deep  hol- 
lotvs,  could  not  be  passed  without  making  a  long  circui- 
tous route.  Being  desirous  therefore  of  leaving  an  im- 
mortal monument  of  herself,  as  well  as  to  make  a  shorter 
way,  <r«07rs§  rovg  re  jc^jj/xvou?  iwrcuKo^^cie'cc,  %cti  tou?  xo/Aoof  TOTrouf 
y^uva^ot),  ffwrofMv  tC  TroAyreAjj  Kuno'Kivxa'iv  oi'ov,  v]  f^^X^^  "^^^ 
wv  «7r'  gjtavjjf  2gtu^(*|U.»J'of  JtJtAgjTot/,  she  ordered  the  preci* 
pices  to  be  cut  down,  and  the  hollow  places  to  bejilledup 
with  tarlh,  and  at  a  great  expense  she  made  a  plain  open 
road,  which  to  this  daj  is  called  the  road  of  Semiramis. 
Afterward  she  made  a  progress  through  Persia,  and  all 
her  other  dominions  in  Asia,   and   wherever  she  came 

TFMTXXfi^   ^i  Tflt  |U£V  Of >J   x'   XXq  XTTO^^Wyatg  TTiX^Otg  ^itWCOTrTOUrflf, 

jMtreinayowgv  o^ovs  TroAuTsAg*?.  x.  t.  A.  she  ordered  the  moun- 
tains and  craggy  rocks  to  be  cut  down,  and  at  a  vast  ex- 
pense, made  the  ways  level  and  plain.  On  the  other 
hand,  in  low  or  champaign  places  she  raised  mounds,  on 
which  she  built  monuments  for  her  deceased  generals ; 
and  sometimes  whole  cities.  Many  of  these  still  remain, 
and  are  called  ihe  works  of  Semiramis.^*  Diodor.  Bib. 
lib.  ii.  p.  44,  47.  Edit.  Bipont.  This  account  shows  a 
beauty  in  the  prophetic  declaration,  which  must  be  lost 
to  all  readers  who  are   not  acquainted  with  the  allusion. 


^^5?^i        THE  SCRIPTURES  ILLUSTRATED  BY' ? 

OBSERVATION  III.  i^ 

~  ■  li 

MATT.  VI.  /,    ILLUSTRATED    BY    QUOTATIONS    FROM    SUI- 

DAS  AND     TERENCE. 

I 

In  teaching  his  disciples  how  to  pray,  our  Lord  cau*' 
lions  them  against  using  vain  repetitions  like  the  heathen  f 
f*t}  /SfltTToAoyj^csTg,  cocTTi^  01  gOvixoj.  Suidas  explains  this 
word  by  TroXxiMyKX,,  "  much  speaking,  and  says,  the  orig- 
inal word  came  from  one  Battus,  a  very  indifTerent  poet, 
who  made  very  prolix  hymns,  in  which  the  same  idea  fre- 
quently recurred."  On  this  subject  the  late  Mr.  Wake- 
field has  made  the  following  judicious  note:  A  frequent 
repetition  of  awful  and  striking  words  may  often  be  the 
result  of  earnestness  and  fervour  ;  see  Dan.  ix.  3 — 20,  but 
great  length  of  prayer,  which  will  of  course  involve  much 
sameness  and  idle  repetition,  naturally  creates  fatigue  and 
carelessness  in  the  worshipper;  and  seems  to  suppose 
ignorance  or  inattention  in  the  Deity  ;  a  fault  against 
which  our  Lord  more  particularly  wishes  to  secure  them, 
ver.  8.  The  heathens  themselves,  among  whom  the  prac- 
tice was  frequent,  sometimes  saw  the  impropriety  of  it. 
Terence  ridicules  it  in  his  Heautoiitimprmf-m^noSy  or 
Self-tormentor,  thus  :  .^jj/^i.    .4^..,*  ,5i « 

*  '^Olie  !  jam  desine  Deos,  uxor,  gratnlando  obtundere  ' ' 

V  Tuam  esse  inventam  gnatam  :  nisi  illos  ex  <mo  tn_ye7iio  judicas, 

I  Ut  nihil  credas  intelligere,  uisi  idem  dictum  sit  centies. 

"  Pray  thee,  wife,  cease  from  stunning  the  gods  with 
thanksgivings,  because  thy  daughter  is  in  safety  ;  unless 
thou  judgest  of  them  from  thyself,  that  they  cannot  tm- 
derstand  a  thing  unless  they  are  told  of  it  a  hundred 
times y  "  ■♦«•'' 

The  Mohammedans  are  peculiarly  remarkaMe  for  vain 
repelitions  in  (heir  devotions.     The  following  is  the  com-* 
mencement  of  one  of  their*  prayers,  in  a  form  now  before 
me:  ■"'''    '^  '     ''■■'  ■*"■ 


THE  GKE£K  AND  ROMAN  CLASSICS.  LXXXV 

.^u  c^L.  c^b  ^L  ^TLai;?b^dr;L^dirL>  ^ 

O  God !  O  God !    O  God  !    O  God!    O  Lord  !  O  LordY 

0  Lord!  O  Lord!  O  thou  living!  O  thou  immortal!  O 
thou  living!  O  thou  immortal!  O  thou  living!  O  thou 
immortal !  O  thou  living !  O  thou  immortal !  O  Creator 
of  the  heavens  and  the  earth,  Sec. 

'■.Such  praying,  or  bultologizing,  can  neither  comport 
with  the  seriousness  of  devotion,  nor  with  the  dignity  of 

the  I)ivine,Nsit«re.  _, ^_,  ,...,. ..      ,.  ..; 

.^»  ri*l>rt%)l<»  Ttm  Tinow.  •^flfti?^?>? Iff!*  fW^e'^Wnnilifaq^i 

**  OBSERVATION  IV. 

A  BEAUTIFUL  ILLUSTRATION  OF  MATT.  XIII.  12,  AND 
LUKE  VIII.  18,  TAKEN  FROM  DIFFERENT  GREEK  AND 
LATIN    WRITERS. 

Perhaps  few  passages  of  Scripture  have  been  so  much 
misunderstood,  and  so  often  perverted,  as  that  in  Matt, 
xiii.  12.  J^or  whosoever  halh^  to  him  shall  be  given  : 
but  whosoever  hath  not,  from  him  shall  be  taken  away, 
even  that  he  hath.  The  principal  difficulty  here  is  in  the 
words  he  that  hath,  and  he  that  hath  not ;  or  as  the  latter 
clause  stands  in  Luke  viii.  18,  what  he  seemeth  to  have. 
That  05-K  i^ih  't«  ^'*o  hath,  means  the  rich  man  ;  and 
a5-<f  ovK  ix^i,  who  hath  not,  means  the  poor,  is  well  known 
to  all  those  who  have  critically  examined  the  New  Tes- 
tament, and  are  acquainted   with  the  Greek  writers.     In 

1  Cor.  xi.  22,  rovg  jwtj  iXP^^  those  who  have  not,  evident- 
ly means  the  poor,  as  tow?  i'^ovrtx^  those  who  have,  means 
the  RICH.  It  was  an  ancient  law  that,  roug  fxiv  t^ovTctf  Movxi 
JO)  j3o6<r*A«i  rtfA,t]g  tttx/A,  To<f  <Je  i^ttj  vxpsxri  ^i^ovoii  rov  ^ocffihict, 
those  who  have,  i.e.  are  rich,  shall  through  respect,  give 
gifts  to  the  king  J  but  those  who  have  not,  i.e.  arc  j^oor; 


IXXXVi  TMtl  SCRIPTDHES  ILLUSTRATED  BY 

shall  receive  from  the  king.  Xenoph.  Exped.  Cyri.  1. 
vii.  So  Euripedes  in  Phseniss.  v.  408  ;  komov  to  jwjj  g;^ 
|t  is  a  miserable  thing  not  to  havcy  i.e.  to  be  poor.  At 
Habeo,  to  have  or  possess,  is  used  in  the  same  sense  in 
©.Oman  Poets.     Thus  Virgil,  georg.  iv.  v.  ITT. 

;  .J 

*!'  '■  innatus — amor  urget  habendi 

3^  Munere  quatnque  suo. 

The  innate  love  of  having-,  i.e.  of  ^atn,  prompts  each  to  discharge  the  du- 
ties of  his  ofitce. 

There  is  one  example  In  Juvenal,  Sat.  iii.  v.  208,  209, 
that  expresses  the  whole  of  our  Lord's  meaning,  and  will 
illustrate  both  clauses  of  this  apparently  difficult  verse. 

Nil  habuit  Codrus :  quis  enim  negat,  et  tamen  illud 
Perdidit  infelix  totum  nil. 

The  sense  of  which  is  prettj   well  expressed   by  Mr. 
Dryden. 

L .  'Tis  true,  poor  Codros  nothing  had  to  boast,  . 

\^'  And  yet  poor  Codros  all  that  nothing  loSt-  •^^"J 

Now  what  was  that  nothing  which  the  Poet  says  Codros 
had  and  lost.^  The  fire  preceding  lines  tell  us  i  . 

Lectus  erat  Codro«  Procula  minor,  urceoli  sex, 
Ornamentum  abaci  ;  necnon  et  parvulus  infra 

|A.  Cantharus,  &  recubans  sub  eodem  marraore  Chiron  j 

'^.  Jamque  vetus  grsecos  serrabat  cista  libelios 

Et  divina  Opici  rodebant  earmina  mures. 

He  had  one  little  bed,  six  smrtll  pitchers,  the  ornament 
of  a  sideboard,  a  small  jug,  or  tankard,  the  image  of  a 
Centaur,  and  an  old  chest,  with  some  Greek  books  in  it, 
which  the  mice,  for  lack  of  better  fare,  consumed.  This 
nothing  he  had,  i.e.  these  few  things  constituted  his  all 
of  earthly  property;  and  all  this  nothing  he  lost,  proba- 
bly by  endeavouring,  in  spite  of  his  destiny,  to  be  a  poet. 
So,  those  who  devote  not  the  light  and  power  which  God 
has  given,  to  the  purposes  for  which  he  has  granted  these 
gifts,  from  them  shall  be  taken  away  these  unemployed  or 
prostituted  blessings. 


I^I'HB  GREEK  AND  ROMAN  CLASSICS.         Lxxxvl 

But  another  difficulfy  presents  itself  in  the  parallel 
place,  Luke  viii.  18.  Whosoever  hath  not,  from  him 
shall  be  taken  even  that  which  he  seemkth  to  have*  Our 
Lord  speaks  here  of  the  improvement  of  blessiugs  receiv- 
ed ;  and  both  i^^iv,  and  habere^  among  the  Greeks  and 
Latins,  signify  not  only  to  have  and  possess,  but  also  to 
use,  improve,  and  profit  by.  So  he  who  is  not  a  worker 
together  with  God,  receives  his  Maker's  blessings  in  vaiaj 
whether  they  be  of  a  spiritual  or  temporal  nature.  '^ 

.But  what  is  implied   in   seeming  to  have  a  thing?  It 
must  be  granted,  1.  That  to  seem  to  have  a  thing,  is  only 
to  have  it  in  appearance,  and  not  in  reality  :  but  what  is 
possessed  in  appearance  only,  can  only  be  lost  in  appear- 
ance ;  therefore,  on  the  one  side  there  is  no  gain,  and  oa 
the  other  side  no  loss.     On  this  ground  the  te\t  speaks 
just  nothing.     2.  But  it  is  evident  that  o  ^oxii  fx^tv,  which 
is  rendered  by  our  common  version  what  he  seemeth  to 
have,  is  equivalent  to  o  i^u  what  he  hath,  in  the  parallel 
places,  Mark  iv.  25.     Matt.  xiii.  12,  xxv.  29,  and  in  Luke 
xix.  26.     8.  It  is  evident  these  persons  had  something 
that  might  be  taken  away  from  them  ;  for  1.  the  Word  of 
God,  the  divine  seed,  was  planted,  in  their  hearts ;  and  2. 
it  bad  already  produced  good  effects,  but  they  permitted 
the  devil,  the  cares  of  the  world,  and  the  love  of  riches, 
&c.  to  destroy  its  produce.     4.  The   verb  ^okuv  is  often 
an  expletive.  So  Xenophon  in  Hellen.  vi.  ot<  i^oKii  zFocr^Mo9 
^lAof  ;  "  because  he   seemed  to  be,  was,   their  father's 
friend."     And  in  CEcon.     "  Among  the  cities  that  seemed 
to  be,  ioaowroui,  that  were,  at  war."  5.  It  often  strength- 
ens the  sense,  and  is   used  for  this  purpose  by  the  very 
best  of  the  Greek  writers.      Ulpian,  in  one  of  his  notes 
on  Demosthenes'  Orations,  Olinth.   i.  quoted  by  Bishop 
Pearse,  says  expressly,  to  ^okhv  ow   T«VT«f  tm   oifji,<pi^ohov 
TctroMffiv  01   TratAotm,   ot,KKoi>  rsohXo(,yu<;   tuct   tm   tov   aiAjjSjuwv. 
"  The  word  Soyunv  is  used  by  the  ancients  to  express,  not 
always  only  what  is  doubtful,  but  oftentimes  what  is  true 
and    C€rtain."     And   this    in    manifestly   its  meaning  m 
Matt.  iii.   9,  Luke  xxii.  24,  John  v.  39,  I  Cor.  vii.  40, 


IXXXVUI  THE  SCRIPTURES  ILLUSTRATED  BY 

X.  12,  xi.  16,  Gal.  ii.  9,  Phil.  iii.  4.  The  words  in  the 
text  should  therefore  be  translated,  from,  him  shall  be 
taken,  even  that  which  he  hath,  or  assuredly  hath.  It 
seems  to  have  been  a  proverbial  mode  of  speech  which 
our  Lord  here  adopts,  the  more  forcibly  to  teach  his  dis- 
ciples, that  he  who  does  not  improve  the  first  operations 
of  grace,  however  small,  is  in  danger  of  losing,  not  only  all 
the  possible  product,  hut  even  the  principal  itseU;  for 
God  delights  to  heap  benefits  on  those  who  properly  use 
them. 

OBSERVATION  V.         ,^^^,^ 

THE    NATURE    OF  THE  ROMAN  CENSUS,  REFERRED  TO  BT 
•     LUKE,  ii.  1 5,  FROM  DIONYSIUS  HALICARNASSENSIS. 

ff^  The  Evangelist  St.  Luke  in  referring  to  the  circum- 
stances of  our  Lord's  nativity,  shows  that  it  took  place  at 
the  time  when  Augustus  ordered  a  census  to  be  made 
through  the  whole  Roman  empire,  called  in  the  text 
•kc/jccm  tj)v   oijtoujwgyjjv,  and   the  census  or  enrolment  itself 

i:,  The  Roman  census,  was  an  institution  o^  Servins  Tul- 
liuSy  sixth  king  of  Rome;  and  from  the  account  given  of 
it  by  Dionysius  Halicarnassensis,  we  may  at  once  see  its 
nature. 

"  He  ordered,"  says  the  historian,  "  all  the  citizens  of 
Rome  to  register  their  estates  according  to  their  value  in 
money  ;  taking  an  oath  in  a  form  he  prescribed,  to  deliv- 
er a  faithful  account,  according  to  the  best  of  their 
knowledge,  specifying  the  names  of  their  parents,  their 
own  age,  the  names  of  their  wives  and  children,  adding 
also  what  quarter  of  the  city,  or  what  town  in  the  coun- 
try they  lived  in."  Ant.  Rom.  1.  iv.  c.  15,  p.  212.  Edit. 
Huds. 

,«A    Roman  census   appears   to  have   consisted  of  tw» 
parts:  1,  The  account   the   people  were  obliged  to  give 


THE  ditifek'  Af!t  RbMAN  CLASSICS.  LXXXIX 

in,  of  Iheir  names,  quality,  employments,  wives,  children, 
servants,  and  estates  ;  and  2.  The  value  set  upon  the  es- 
tates by  the  censors,  and  the  proportion  in  which  they 
adjudged  them  to  contribute  to  the  defence  and  support 
of  the  state  either  in  men  or  money,  or  both ;  and  this 
seems  to  have  been  the  design  of  the  census,  or  enrolment 
mentioned  in  the  text,  which  was  almost  similar  to  that 
made  in  England,  by  William  the  conqueror,  and  still  ex- 
tant in  the  work  commonly  called  Doom's  day  Book.  '~ ' 

n 

OBSERVATION  VI. 

CASE  OF  THE  DEMONIAC,  MENTIONED  LUKE  IX.  39,  IL- 
LUSTRATED BY  QUOTATIONS  FROM   HE- 
RODOTUS AND  VIRGIL. 

.'  I  SHALL  not  meddle  with  the  controversy  concerning 
the  case  of  the  demoniacs  of  the  New  Testament  ;  but 
merely  show  that  the  sacred  and  profane  writers  be- 
lieving the  reality  of  the  thing,  use  exactly  the  same  lan- 
guage, and  apply  the  saooie  terms  in  precisely  the  same 
sense. 

An  afQicted  father  brings  his  wretched  son  to  our  bless- 
ed Lord  ;  and  thus  in  accosting  him,  describes  the  case  of 
the  child  ;  Master,  I  beseech  thee  look  upon  my  son,  for 
he  is  my  only  child  ;  and  lo,  a  spirit  taketh  himy  -jrvivfMi 
Aei>fj£a,vu  otvrov,  and  he  suddenly  crieth  out :  and  it  teareth 
him  till  he  foameth  again  ;  and  Iniising  him,  hardly 
departethfrom  him.     Luke  ix.  38,  39. 

That  the  same  form  of  speech  is  used  by  heathen  wri- 
ters, and  the  same  effects  described  when  they  speak  of 
supernatural  influence,  the  following  account  from  Hero- 
dotus will  make  sufficiently  evident. 

Speaking  of  Sc?//es,  kingof  the  Scythians,  who  having 
received  a  Grecian  education,  was  more  attached  to  the 
customs  of  the  Greeks,  than  to  those  of  his  own  country- 
men, and  who  desired  to  be  privately  initiated  into  the 
Bacchic  mysteries,  he  adds^  "  Now  because  the^cythians 

VOL.  I.  12 


XC  THE  SCRIPTURES  ILLUSTRATED  BY 

reproach  the  Greeks  on  account  of  these  Bacchanals,  and 
saj,  that  to  imagine  a  god  driving  men  into  paroxysms  of 
madness  is  not  agreeable  to  reason  ;  a  certain  Borysthe- 
nian,  while  the  king  was  privately  performing  the  ceremo- 
nies, went  out  and  discovered  the  matter  to  the  Scythian 
army,  in  these  words  :  Ye  Scythians  ridicule  us  because 
we  celebrate  the  mysteries  of  Bacchus^  kxi  rifjuxg  o  620? 
AAMBANEIj  and  the  god  possesseth  us  ;  but  vuv  outo?  0  AAI- 
MiiN  xoti  Tov  vjW£T€gov  ^ot^iXict,  AEAABHKE,  iwf*  jixK^ivu,  K»i  vtto 
Toy  Gsou  jxauviToUf  noiv  this  same  demon  possesseth  your 
king,  and  he  performs  the  part  of  a  Bacchanalian,  and 
is  filled  with  fury  by  the  god.  Herodot,  lib.  vi.  p.  250. 
Edit.  Gale. 

This  passage  is  exceedingly  remarkable.  The  very 
expressions  which  Luke  uses,  are  used  by  Herodotus. 
A  demon,  ^Aif^m  or  spirit,  is  the  agent  in  the  Greek  his- 
torian, and  in  the  case  mentioned  in  the  text.  In  both 
cases  it  is  said  the  demon  takes  or  possesses  the  persons, 
and  the  very  same  word  Tunfji^xvn  is  used  to  express  this 
circumstance  in  both  historians.  Both  historians  repre- 
sent these  possessions  as  real,  by  the  effects  produced  in 
the  persons :  the  heathen  king  rages  with  fury  through 
the  influence  of  the  demon,  called  the  god  Bacchus  ;  u7ra 
rov  Ssov  fA,xmToci,  the  person  in  the  text  screams  out  ti^x^u, 
is  greatly  convulsed,  and  foams  at  the  mouth,  a-Trx^xca-it 
xvrov  fju^x  a(poou.  The  case  in  the  sacred  te-s.i  was  cer- 
tainly a  real  possession,  and  therefore,  when  the  Jews  saw 
that  by  the  superior  power  of  Christ,  the  demon  was  ex- 
pelled, t^i7r\iT<rovro  ^i  TrxvTig  ivi  rtj  [A^iyx^uor^n  rov  $£ou, 
they  were  all  astonished  at  the  majesty  op  God. 
i'i  Virgil  has  left  us  a  description  of  a  demoniacal  posses- 
sion of  this  kind,  which  were  doubtless  frequent  among 
demon  worshippers,  where  the  effects  are  nearly  similar : 

ait,  deus,  ecce,  deus  i  cui  talia  fanti 


Ante  fores,  sabito  non  voltus,  non  color  unus. 
Nor  comptte  mansere  comte  ;  sed  pectus  anhelum, 
Et  rabiefera  corda  tument :  majorque  videri. 
Nee  mortale  sonans,  adjlata  est  nutnine  quando 
J&n^ropiore  Dei.  Eke  i s.  vi.  r.  46,  &c> 


THE  GREEK  AND  ROMAN  CLASSICS.  XCl 

t  At  Phoebi  nondum  patiens  immanis  in  antro 

£acchaUir  vates,  magnum  si  pectore  possit 

Excussisse  deum.    Tanto  roajus  ille  fatigat 

^'  Oi  rabidum,fera  corda  domans,  fiugitque  premendo. 

^icOi  Ibid.  V.  77.. 

|t#J  '  ifeel  the  god,  the  rushing  god  !  she  cries  ; 

^:  While  thus  she  i^o^k-e  enlarged  her  features  ^cv/ , 

Her  colour  changed,  her  locks  dishevelled  flew, 
> ''  The  heavenly  tumult  reigns  in  every  part, 

Pants  in  her  breast,  and  swells  her  rising  heart ; 
Still  spreading  to  the  sight,  the  priestess  glow'd, 
And  heaved  impatient  of  the  incumbent  god. 
^^'  Then,  to  her  inmost  soul,  by  Phoebus ^re</, 

|i  \  In  more  tlian  human  sounds  she  spoke  inspired. 

PlTT<' 

Struggling  in  vain,  impatient  of  her  load, 
And  labouring  underneatli  the  ponderous  god, 
Tlie  more  she  strove  to  shake  him  from  her  breast, 
With  more,  and  far  superior  weight  he  press'd  ; 
Commands  his  entrance,  and  without  controul 
Usurps  fter  organs,  and  inspires  her  soul. 


V-' 


A^ 


Dkyden. 


".  These  are  remarkable  instances,  and  mutually  reflect 
light  on  each  other  :  the  sacred  history  explaining  the 
profane  ;  and  the  profane  illustrating  the  sacred. 


OBSERVATION  VII. 

MATT.  VII.  3,  ILLUSTRATED  BY  A  QUOTATION  FROM 
HORACE. 

vrceitw-. 

''  It  were  to  be  wished  that  all  who  read  the  following 
expostulation,  would  lay  it  deeply  to  heart ;  Why  hehold- 
est  thou  the  mote  that  is  in  thy  brother^s  eye,  hut  consid' 
erest  not  the  beam  that  is  in  thine  own  eye  ?  Matt.  vii.  3. 
There  is  a  cutting  question  very  similar  to  this  of  our 
Lord;  proposed  by  a  heathen. 

Cum  tua  prxvidcas  oculis  mala  lippus  inunctis. 
Cur  in  amicornm  Tiliis  tam  cernis  acutum, 
Quara  autaquiia  aut  serpens  Epidaurius? 

Hor.  Sat.  Lib.  i,  Sat.  .3.  v.  25—27. 


X5U  THE  SCRIPTURES  ILLUSTRATED  BY 

"When  you  can  so  readily  overlook  your  own  nicked- 

nesSf  why  are  you  more  clear  sighted  than  the  eagle  or 

serpent  of  Epidaurus  in  spying  out  the /ath'ng's  of  your 

friends  ?"  This  propensity   of  man   to    forget  his  own 

faults,  and  to   look  with  the  most  criminal  accuracy  into 

those  of  his  neighbour  which   he  often  magnifies,  distorts 

and  caricatures,   is  not  only  reprehended  in   the  sacred 

Scriptures,  but  also  by   many  of  the  Greek  and  Romatfj. 

writers.  "  '    ^- 

•  ft  K<u;n  ' 

OBSERVATION  VIII. 

AN  IMPORTANT  SAYING  OF  OtJR    BLESSED  LORD,  MATT.  X.   39, 
ILLUSTRATED  BY  A    PASSAGE  IN  JUVENALi. 

He  that  findeth  his  life  shall  lose  it,  Matt.  %*  39,  i.1^.' 
he  who  for  the  sake  of  his  temporal  interest,  abandons  bis 
spiritual  concerns,  shall  lose  his  soul ;  and  he  who  in  or- 
der to  avoid  martyrdom,  abjures  the  pure  religion  of 
Christ,  shall  lose  his  soul,  and  perhaps  his  life  too. 

There  is  a  fine  piece  nearly  on  this  subject,  in  Jiivenaly 
Sat.  viii.  1,  80,  which  deserves  to  be  recorded  here: 

-Ambigaae  si  quando  citabere  testis 


Incertseque  rei,  Phalaiis licet  imperet ut  sis 
Falsus  et  admoto  dictet  perjuria  tauro, 
Summum  erode  nefas  animam  prseferre  pudori 
Et  propter  vitam  vivendi  perdere  causas. 

And  if  a  witness  ia  adoubtfal  cause, 
Where  a  brib'd  judge  means  to  elude  the  laws  ; 
Though  Phalaris's  brazen  bull  were  there. 
And  he  would  dictate  what  he'd  hare  jou  swear. 
Be  not  so  profligate,  but  rather  choose 
To  guard  your  honor,  and  yoiT  life  to  lose. 
Rather  thau  let  your  virtue  be  betrayal. 

Virtue,  the  noble  cause  for  whioh  you're  made. 

Dryden. 


THE  GREEK  AND  ROMAN  CLASSICS.  xcill 

OBSERVATION  IX. 


AN  ILLUSTRATION    OP  THE  TERM  BOSOM  USED  BY  LUKE 
VI.  38,  WITH    A    CWRIOUS  STORY  FROM  HERODOTUS. 

Almost  all  ancient  nations  and  particularly  those  of  the 
East,  wore  long,  wide,  and  loose  garments ;  and  when 
about  to  carry  any  thing  away  that  their  hands  could  not 
contain,  they  used  a  fold  in  the  bosom  of  their  robe,  near- 
ly in  the  same  way  that  women  in  England  use  their 
aprons.  To  this^custom  our  Lord  alludes  when  he  says, 
Luke  \\.  38,  Good  Measure  shall  men  give  into  your 
BOSOM.  The  word  jcoAttov,  bosom  or  Zap,  frequently  oc- 
curs in  this  sense  in  the  best  and  purest  Greek  writers. 
The  following  example  from  Herodotus  will  at  once  both 
illustrate  this  use  of  the  term,  and  show  the  extrava- 
gant and  ridiculous  nature  of  covetousness. 

"When  Croesus  had  promised  to  Alcmeon  as  much 
gold  as  he  could  carry  about  his  body  at  once ;  in  order 
to  improve  the  king's  liberality  to  the  best  advantage,  he 
put  on  a  very  wide  tunic,  ivS'usiu^va  fxiyocvt  leaving  a. great 
space  in  the  hosom^  yjoKtcw  /3»6uv  x«T«Ai;rojU£yo$-,  and  drew 
on  the  widest  buskins  he  could  procure.  Being  conducted 
into  the  treasury,  he  sat  down  upon  a  great  heap  of  ingots, 
and  having  first  stuffed  the  buskins  round  his  legs  with 
as  much  gold  as  they  could  contain,  he  afterward  filled 
his  whole  bosom,  Mh7rovrcivrx7rX*j<roi[Aivog,  and  loaded  his 
hair  with  ingots,  and  put  as  many  as  it  could  contain  into  his 
mouth,  and  then  waddled  out  of  the  treasury,  dragging  his 
heavy  laden  buskins  along,  having  scarcely  any  thing  re- 
maining in  his  appearance  indicative  of  the  human  form  !'* 
Herodot,  Erato,  p.  375.  Edit»  Gale* 


xciv  THE  SCRIPTURES  ILLUSTRATED  BY 

-  -nil**.!',* 
OBSERVATION  X.  /'"; 

A  DIFFICULT  PASSAGE  INT  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHiJj'IeIc- 
PLAINED  BY  A  QUOTATION  FROM   HERODOTUS. 

Him  hath  God  the  Father  sealed.  John  vi.  2.  This 
saying  is  difficult,  and  has  been  variously  understood. 
Among  the  different  explanations  given  of  it,  the  follow- 
ing has  certainly  a  right  to  show  itself;  and  I  hope  it  may 
do  so  without  offending  any,  whatever  his  peculiar  creed 
may  be.  Most  christians  believe  that  our  blessed  Lord 
laid  down  his  life  as  an  atonement  for  the  sin  of  the  world  : 
and  to  this  he  seems  to  allude  ver.  51,  and  the  bread 
that  I  will  give  is  my  flesh,  which  I  will  give  for  the  life 
of  the  world  ;  and  to  this  circumstance  the  saying  above, 
Him  hath  God  the  Father  sealed,  seems  evidently  to 
refer. 

It  certainly  was  a  custom  among  nations  contiguous  to 
Judea,  to  set  a  seal  upon  the  victim  that  was  deemed 
proper  for  sacrifice.  The  following  account  of  the  meth- 
od of  providing  white  bulls,  among  the  Egyptians,  for 
sacrifices  to  the  god  Apis,  Herodot,  Euterp,  p.  104, 
Edit.  Gale,  will  cast  some  light  on  this  subject.  "  If  they 
find  even  one  black  hair  on  him,  they  deem  him  unclean. 
That  they  may  know  this  with  certainty,  the  priest  ap- 
pointed for  this  purpose,  examines  the  whole  animal  both 
standing  up  and  lying  down  ;  afterward  he  draws  out  his 
tongue  to  see  by  certain  signs  whether  it  be  clean ;  and, 
lastly,  looks  on  the  hairs  of  his  tail  to  see  if  they  be  all  in 
their  natural  state.  If,  after  this  search,  the  animal  is 
found  without  blemish,  he  signifies  it  by  binding  a  label 
to  his  horns,  then  applying  wax,  seals  it  with  his  ring, 
JMM  i7rinoc>  yyjv  <ryiiJMvrfi^oe>  iTtiTtKcccxg,  i7Fi.%oi>KKu  rov  ^ciKTvAov, 
and  the  beast  is  led  away:  for  to  sacrifice  one,  not  thus 
sealed,  is  punished  with  death.  flW>jji**vTov  ^i  ^va-xvn  6«v«- 
TOf  >}  ^>j,a<)j  iTriKitToci*     And  these   are    the  rites  of  this 


THE  GREEK  AND  ROMAN  CLASSICS.  xcv 

Sacrifice  :  aiyotyovng  to  fficviytMfffjucioy  jctcto? .  k.  r.  A.  the  beast 
THUS  SEALED  IS  brought  to  thc  altar,  afterward  the  head 
is  cut  off,  and  brought  to  the  market  and  sold  to  the 
Greeks;  but  if  it  be  not  the  market  day,  they  throw  the 
head  into  the  river  with  the  execration,  that  if  there  he  any 
evil  hanging  over  them  or  over  the  land  of  Egypt,  it  may 
be  poured  out  upon  that  head,"  &c. 
-ii  The  Jews  could  not  be  unacquainted  with  the  rites  and 
ceremonies  of  the  Egyptian  worship ;  and  it  is  possible 
that  such  precautions  as  these  were  in  use  among  them- 
selves ;  especially  as  they  were  so  strictly  enjoined  to 
have  their  sacrifices  without  spot  and  without  blemish, 
God,  infinite  in  holiness  and  justice,  found  Jesvs  Christ 
to  be  a  lamb  without  spot  or  imperfection,  and  therefore 
sealed  ftim;  pointed  out  and  accepted  him  as  a  proper  sac- 
rifice for  the  sins  of  mankind.  Collate  this  passage  with 
Heb.  vii.  26,  27,  28.  Eph.  v.  27.  2  Pet.  iii.  14.  and  es- 
pecially withHeb.ix.13,  14.  For  if  the  blood  o/ bulls, 
and  of  goats,  and  the  ashes  of  a  heifer,  sprinkling  the 
unclean  sanctifieth  ;  how  much  more  shall  the  blood  of 
Christ,  who  through  the  eternal  Spirit,  offered  himself 
WITHOUT  SPOT  TO  GoD,  puTge  your  consciences  from 
dead  works  ? 


isftoti 


.>lP^.-v» 


t5vj-»ritj-r 


f^fvhf^^^' 


ft' 


,3i-  c.^ 


n 


aK 


OBSERVATIONS 

OH 

DIVERS  PASSAGES  OF  HOLY  SCRIPTURE 
CHAP.   I. 

CONCERNING    THE    WEATHER     IN   THE    HOLt    LAND. 

The  design  of  these  papers  is  rather  to  illustrate  the 
customs  that  are  mentioned,  or  alluded  to,  in  the  Sacred 
Writings,  than  the  references  there  to  natural  philosophy  5 
some  account,  however,  of  the  weather  of  this  country 
will,  I  imagine,  be  acceptable,  since  the  references  to  it 
are  so  very  numerous,  and  nothing  like  a  particular  de- 
scription of  it  is  any  where,  that  I  know  of,  to  be  met 
with. 

The  accurate  account  given  by  Dr.  Russell  of  the 
weather  at  Aleppo,  would  make  one  regret  that  no  author 
among  the  numerous  describers  of  the  Holy  Land,  has 
given  us  such  a  history  of  the  weather  of  that  country. 
And  this  is  the  more  to  be  wondered  at,  as  these  obser- 
vations might  have  been  made  without  danger  or  ofTence. 
Geograpjiical  surveys  of  it,  among  so  jealous  a  people, 
might  cost  a  virtuoso  his  life;  the  wild  Arabs,  it  is  com- 
plained,* render  even  searches  after  plants,  and  other  nat- 
ural curiosities  extremely  dangerous ;  but  observations 
on  the  weather  might  be  made  with  perfect  safety,  as  an 
European  can  reside  in  any  place  there,  and  they  might 
be  made  without  stirring  out  of  a  convent. 

*  Shaw's  Prcfucc,  p,  'X 

roL.  I.  l.'J 


9g  CONCERNING  THE  WEATHER 

Nor  is  great  nicety  required  in  observations  of  this 
kind.  It  may  be  left  to  those  that  live  in  more  commo- 
dious countries,  to  endeavour  to  give  an  account  of  the 
weather  which  shall  be  philosophically  complete.  The 
flat  roof  of  any  building  that  has  but  one  spout  for  carry- 
ing off  the  water,  might  be  a  measurer  of  the  different 
quantities  of  the  falling  rain  sufficiently  accurate;  as  the 
setting  down  the  times  in  which  they  fall,  together  with 
the  direction  of  the  wind,  the  consequences  of  its  blowing 
from  different  quarters,  and  a  few  other  things,  which  the 
senses  might  judge  of  without  the  help  of  any  curious 
philosophical  instruments,  might  be  sufficient  for  illustrat- 
ing the  Scriptures  which  relate  to  the  weather  ;  for  they 
speak  of  these  matters  in  a  popular  way  only.  But  I  do 
not  know  that  this  has  been  done  with  any  degree  of  co- 
piousness and  particularity,  much  less  for  any  number  of 
years.  Hereafter,  perhaps*  the  Royal  or  the  Antiquarian 
Society  may  procure  those  observatiens  to  be  made;  or 
even  some  private  gentleman,  whose  curiosity  has  a  de- 
vout turn  :  in  the  mean  time,  I  would  beg  leave  to  lay  be- 
fore the  public  a  collection  of  remarks  of  this  kind,  such 
as  I  have  been  able  to  draw  together  from  those  books 
which  have  fallen  into  my  hands.  This,  I  hope,  may  not 
be  altogether  unentertaining,  nor  indeed  wholly  useless, 
though  I  am  sensible  it  is  very  incomplete,  notwithstand- 
ing 1  have  adopted  the  accounts  which  are  given  us  of 
some  other  countries,  where,  the  weather,  there  is  reason 
to  apprehend,  is  much  the  same  as  in  Judea.  > 

I  will  only  take  the  liberty  further  to  remark,  now  I 
am  speaking  on  this  subject,  and  looking  forward  with  ex- 
pectation and  hope  to  what  may  hereafter  be  done  by  the 
curious,  that  it  may  be  proper  not  to  forget,  that  the 
weather  differs  considerably  in  different  parts  of  the  Ho- 
ly Land.  Not  to  mention  the  observation  of  Dr.  Shaw, 
who  affirms,*  that  the  country  from  Tripoli  to  Sidon 
H  much  colder  than  the  rest  of  the  coast  further  North, 

*  p.  33». 


IN  THE  HOLY  LAND.  ^ 

as  well  as  further  South ;  and  has  a  less  regular  change 
of  the  seasons  ;  since  these  places  are  hardly  within  the 
Jewish  limits,  I  would  observe  that  Reland  assures  us,*= 
on  the  authority  of  some  who  had  been  in  that  country, 
that  the  air  and  soil  of  the  mountainous  parts  of  Judea  are 
much  colder  than  that  of  the  seacoast ;  and  the  vegetable 
productions  much  later  there  than  in  the  neighbourhood 
of  Gaza.  Egmont  and  Heyman,  in  like  manner,  tell  us,f 
that  the  air  of  Saphet  in  Galilee  is  from  its  high  situation 
so  fresh  and  cool,  that  the  heats,  which  during  the  sum- 
mer are  very  great  in  the  adjacent  country,  are  here  hard- 
ly felt.  Josephus  took  notice  of  such  differences  ancient- 
ly, and  tells  us  that  it  was  warm  near  Jericho,  when  it 
snowed  in  other  places  of  Judea  ;J  an  account  which 
will  not  appear  hard  to  be  believed  by  those  who  have 
read  in  Egmont  and  Heyman,§  that  they  found  the  air 
about  Jericho  extremely  troublesome  on  account  of  its 
great  heat,  which  some  years  is  quite  insupportable :  and 
actually  proved  fatal^  to  several  the  year  before  they 
were  there  ;  though  Easter,  at  which  time  these  pilgrim- 
ages are  made,  then  happened  in  the  month  of  March. 
They  who  would  make  their  services  of  this  kind  quite 

^  •  Palest,  p.  387.  f  Vol.  ii.  p.  47,  ^^ 

^«  4  De  Bell.  Jud.  1,  4.  cap.  viii.  Ed.  Harcrcamp.  §  Vol.  i.  p.  333. 

H  The  lieat  also  proved  deadly  to  several  people  in  the  army  of  K.  Baldwin 
I\'.  upon  fighting  a  battle,  not  far  from  Tiberias  in  Galilee,  and  conse. 
quently  in  a  situation  considerably  more  to  the  Nortli  than  Jericho.  But 
this  appears,  by  what  the  Archbishop  of  Tyre  says,  to  have  been  in  the 
middle  of  summer,  perhaps  the  end  of  June,  or  beginning  of  July  ;  for  he 
does  not  mention  the  time  exactly.  "  It  ought  not  to  be  passed  over  in  si* 
lence,"  says  this  writer,  GestaD^i,  &c.  p.  10J8,  "thai  the  heat  at  that 
time  was  so  unusually  great,  that  aa  many  died,  in  both  armies,  by  the  heat 
as  by  the  sword."  He  adds,  that  after  the  battle,  in  their  return  to  their 
former  encampment,  "  a  certain  ecclesiastic,  of  some  distinciion  in  the 
church  and  in  the  army,  not  being  able  to  bear  the  vehemence  of  the  heat, 
was  carried  in  a  litter,  yet  expired  under  Mount  Tabor,  near  the  river  Ki- 
shon."  Reland,  in  his  Palcstina,  p.  992,  shows  that  Shuncm  was  in  the 
aeighbourhood  of  Mount  Tabor  ;  and  atShunem,  it  should  seem,  the  licat 
proved  deadly  to  a  child  in  the  days  of  the  prophet  Elisha,  iu  the  time  o)° 
harvest.    2Kinjj^Ti.l8 — 20. 


109  CONCERNING  THE  WEATHER 

satisfactory,  should  furnish  the  learned  world  with  obsec-  ; 
vations  on  the  weather,  as  if  is  at  Jerusalem,  at  Jericho,i 
at  Gaza,  or  some  neighbouring  place  on  that  shore;  iHr 
different  places  of  Galilee,  and,  perhaps,  I  might  add,  at* 
Canobin.  What  I  havt  been  able  to  do,  will  appear  in 
the  following  particulars. 

'J 

OBSERVATION  I. 

RAIN,    THUNDER,    LIGHTNING,  SUMMER's  DROUGHT,    &C. 
IN    THE   HOLY    LAND. 

In  England  and  its  neighbouring  countries,  it  is  common 
for  rain  to  fall  in  all  months  of  the  year  ;  but  it  is  not  so 
in  the  Levant.  Every  one  knows,  Egypt  has  scarcely 
any  rain  at  all ;  and  Dr.  Shaw  affirms,  that  it  is  as  uncom- 
mon in  most  parts  of  what  they  call  at  Algiers,  the  Desert, 
which  is  the  most  southern  part  of  that  country.  But 
these  are  particular  cases.  Rain  indiscriminately  in  the 
winter  months,  and  none  at  all  in  the  summer,  is  what  is 
most  common  in  the  East :  so  it  is  at  Aleppo,*  and  about 
Algiers ;  f  and  so  Jacobus  de  Vilriaco  assures  us  J  it  is  ^ 
in  Judea,  for  he  observes,  that  "lightning  and  thunder 
are  wont,  in  the  western  countries,  to  be  in  the  summer, 
but  happen  in  the  Holy  Land  in  winter.  That  in  the 
summer  it  seldom  or  never  rains  there ;  but  in  winter, 
though  the  returns  of  the  rain  are  not  so  frequent,  after 
they  begin  to  fall  they  pour  down  for  three  or  four  days 
and  nights  together,  as  vehemently  as  if  they  would  drown 
the  country." 

This  is  one  of  the  most  distinct  accounts  I  have  any 
where  met  with  of  the  weather  of  Judea;  and  it  is  the 
more  valuable,  as  he  was  not  a  mere  titular  Bishop  of  St. 
John  d'Acre,  but  spent  some  time  in  that  country,  and 
wrote  his  history  of  Jerusalem  in  the  East,  after  being  en- 

*  See  Kussdl,  vol.  i.  p.  65.  t  Shaw. 

+  Vide  Gesta  Dei  per  Francos,  toI.  i,  pp.  1097,  1098. 


*  IN  THE  HOLY  L.\ND.  j  Of  I 

gaged  in  many  transactions  there,  as  appears  by  his  book. 
,1  shall  have  occasion  hereafter  to  take  notice  of  all  these 
particulars  ;  relative  to  the  weather,  at  present  I  only  ob- 
serve, (hat,  conformably  to  what  happens  in  other  coun- 
tries thereabouts,  the  summers  of  Judea  are  usually  per- 
fectly dry.  Josephus  confirms  this  as  to  Galilee^  de 
Bell.  Jud.  lib.  iii.  C.7. 

Bishop  Patrick,  therefore,  wheahe  paraphrases  those 
words  of  the  Psalmist,  my  moisture  is  turned  into  the 
drought  of  summer,"  My  body  was  consumed  and  parch- 
ed like  the  grass  of  the  earth,  in  the  mid^t  of  the  driest 
summer,"  seems  rather  to  write  like  a  mere  Englishman, 
than  to  design  to  express  the  exact  thought  of  David. 
All  their  summers  are  dry,  and  the  withered  appearance 
of  an  eastern  summer,  in  common,  is  doubtless  what  the 
Psalmist  refers  to,  without  thinking  of  any  particular  year 
of  drought.  Dr.  Russell's  account  of  a  Syrian  summer, 
which  the  reader  will  meet  with  by  and  by,  is  the  most 
beautiful  comment  that  can  be  met  with  on  this  passage. 

It  was  owing,  probably,  to  a  like  cause,  that  Tacitus, 
the  Roman  historian,  speaks  ^  of  Judea  as  a  country  that 
had  not  many  showers  ;  whereas,  a  contemporary  histori- 
an,! ^^o  perfectly  knew  its  nature,  affirms  that  agreat  deal 
of  rain  fell  there.  Tacitus  lived  here  in  the  West,  and 
comparing,  it  may  be  imagined,  a  summer  in  Judea  with 
what  happens  in  Germany  and  France,  he  calls  it  a  coun- 
try of  little  rain. 

This  representation  of  a  Jewish  summer  forbids  our 
admitting  the  interpretation  the  learned  and  ingenious 
Dr.  Delany  has  given  us  of  this  verse,  in  his  history  of  the 
life  of  David.J  He  supposes  the  words,  wy  moisture  is 
turned  into  the  drought  of  summer,  signify  that  the 
change  was  "as  if  he  had  been  removed  at  once  from  the 
depth  of  winter  into  midsummer ;  as  if  all  the  storms,  and 
rain,  and  clouds,  of  that  gloomy  season,  the  finest  emblem 

*  Lib.  V.  cap.  6.  Hist.  f  Josephus  de  Bell.  Jud.  lib.  iii.  cap.  3. 

n'ol.iii.  pp.26,  27. 


102  CONCERNING  THE  WEATHER 

of  grief,  were  changed,  at  once,  into  serenity  and  sunshine  ; 
the  heavens  clear,  unclouded,  and  smiling  upon  him." 
But  the  moisture  David  speaks  of  has  not  been  usually 
understood  to  refer  to  winter,  and  to  mean  tears  of  grief  j 
it  may  also  undoubtedly,  full  as  well  at  least,  be  consider- 
ed as  an  image  derived  from  the  spring,  which  is  agreea- 
bly moist  in  those  countries.  And  on  the  other  hand, 
midsummer  there,  though  clear  and  unclouded,  is  no  just 
representation  of  a  state  of  pleasantness :  for  this  we  have 
not  only  the  decisive  authority  of  natural  historians,  but 
even  grammarians  derive  the  word  ^'"'p  which  signifies 
summer^  from  a  root  which  points  out  the  troublesome- 
ness  of  its  heats.*       .  ,««^  ^^^  «<  4 

mil  '  i; 

-^  OBSERVATION  II.  i 

'      TIME    OF    THE   FIRST    RAINS    IN    JUDEA. 

The  learned  and  ingenious  Dr.  Shaw  has  given  us,  iif 
his  book  of  travels,  one  chapter  entitled,  "  Physical  Ob- 
servations, &c.  or,  an  Essay  toward  the  Natural  Histo- 
ry of  Syria,  Phoenice,  and  the  Holy  Land  ;"f  in  which  he 
tells  us,  the  first  rainsj  in  these  countries  usually  fall 
about  the  beginning  of  November,  O.S.J  But  as  it  appears, 
he  did  not  arrive  in  Syria  or  Phoenice  until  December  ;[| 
that  from  thence,  after  travelling  several  weeks  in  those 
countries,  he  went  by  sea  to  Joppa,  in  order  to  go  to  Je- 
rusalem the  beginning  of  March  ;$  that  from  Jerusalem 
he  went  northward  to  the  river  Kishon,  where  he  was 
the  middleof  April ',  ^  and  that,  consequently,  it  is  not  to 

<^**^atz,  tsdio  a(Hci,fort^  quod  turn  homines  nonnihil  moleslia  afficiantur 
ob  Calorem  Solis,  says  Bythner  in  his  Lyra,  p.  175. 

It  seems  moie  consistent  with  the  nature  of  the  time,  and  the  genius  of 
the  Hebrew  language,  to  deduce  it  from  ^'p'yaAra^s,  to  awake,  to  recover 
from  a  state  of  inactivity  ;  in  opposition  to  ^"^H  chereph,  the  winter,  or 
time  oi  stripping,  because  nature  seems  then  to  put  ofi"  its  gay  clothing 
which  is  reassumed  in  the  spring  and  summer,  when  the  vegetative  princi- 
ple is  araakeued  by  the  genial  heat  of  the  sun.    Edit. 

t  P.  329,  &c.  %  P.  ^35.  li  P.  340.  §  U  P.  271. 


IN  THE  HOLY  LAND.  f(f^ 

be  supposed  he  was  in  the  Holy  Land  in  atituran:  on 
these  accounts,  he  cannot  be  admitted  to  speak  from  his 
own  knowledge,  concerning  the  time  of  the  descent  of  the 
first  rains.  Further,  as  he  does  not  tell  us  whence  he  de- 
rived his  information,  and  that  we  know  he  sometimes 
draws  his  accounts  from  what  he  apprehends  is  said  in  the 
Scriptures,  instead  of  illustrating  those  ancient  represen- 
tations by  modern  observations,  as  he  does,  in  particular, 
as  to  the  quarter  from  which  the  wind  is  wont  to  blow 
when  rainfalls,*  and  sometimes  implicitly  adopts  the  mis- 
takes of  our  translators  ;  I  have  been  desirous  to  obtain  a 
more  satisfactory  account  of  the  weather  in  the  Holy 
Land,  as  to  this  point,  in  autumn  and  the  beginning  of 
the  winter,  than  Dr.  Shaw's,  which  was,  indeed,very  prob- 
able, but  not  decisive. 

I  consulted  for  this  purpose  several  books,  but  in  vain, 
as  to  any  direct  and  positive  testimony  concerning  the  de- 
scent of  the  first  rains  of  the  winter  part  of  the  year  ;  but 
at  length  was  so  happy  as  to  obtain,  in  a  great  measure, 
the  information  I  wanted,  from  the  manuscript  journal  of  a 
gentleman,  who  was  in  these  countries  in  the  latter  part 
of  the  year  1774.  "From  Cyprus  he  went  to  Tripoli, 
where  he  landed  Oct.  11.  On  the  22d  of  that  month  he 
landed  at  Acre,  which  he  considered  as  his  entrance  into 
the  Holy  Land,  and  meeting  with  many  hindrances  from 
the  exactions  of  the  Arabs,  and  the  difficulty  of  procuring 
protection,  he  did  not  reach  Jerusalem  till  the  4lh  of  No- 
Tember.  The  first  rains  that  are  taken  notice  of  in  his  jour- 
nal, after  the  summer  drought,  or  which  he  could  remem- 
ber, fell  on  the  2d  and  the  4th  of  November.  On  the  first 
of  those  days  he  found  some  rain  between  Joppa  and  Ra- 
mah ;  and  on  the  fourth  of  that  month,"  his  journal  re- 
marks, that  "they  were  nine  hours  and  a  half  in  the  rain; 
which  fell  not  constantly,  but  in  heavy  showers."  He 
»ddcd,  "  that  the  day  after  his  arrival  at  Jerusalem^  No- 

•  P.  329. 


IgU  CONCERNING  THE  WEATHER 

vember  5,  he  was  prevented  from  going  out  "by  rain',"  alia 
that  it  continued  unsettled  weather  until  the  191h  of  that 
month,  when  he  left  that  city,  but  which  in  the  climate  of 
Britain  would  have  been  deemed  very  good,  as  the  rain 
did  not  fall  in  large  quantities,  or  without  intermission, 
through  the  day."  ' 

This  traveller  found  that  the  rain  fell  in  the  Holy  Land 
sooner  than  the  beginning  of  November,  O.S.  for  he  found 
it  descended  on  the  second  of  November,  N.S.  which  an- 
swers to  the  twenty-second  of  October  of  the  style  used 
by  Dr.  Shaw. 

It  is  not  unlikely  that  it  might  begin  to  fall  still  sooner 
in  Judea,  since  he  found  the  peasants  ploughing  up  their 
stubbles  for  wheat,  as  he  passed  through  the  vale  of  Es- 
draelon,  which  appeared  to  him  to  be  probably,  the  best 
and  most  extensive  spot  of  arable  land  in  Palestine,  as, 
by  what  remained,  the  crop  must  have  been  very  great ; 
and  what  was  the  more  remarkable,  had  never  received 
the  least  manure,  or  the  soil  been  turned  more  than  six 
inches  in  depth  ;  for,  according  to  Dr.  Shaw,*=  the  Arabs 
do  not  begin  to  break  up  the  ground  to  sow  wheat,  and 
plant  beans,  until  after  the  falling  of  the  first  rains.  He 
found  them  also  ploughing  between  Joppa  and  Jerusalem, 
with  a  guard  attending  them,  to  prevent  their  being  rob- 
bed of  the  grain  they  were  about  to  sow. 

Agreeably  to  this  supposition,  of  the  still  earlier  fall  of 
the  rain  of  Palestine  than  the  22d  of  October,  O.S.  Rau- 
wolfF  tells  us  he  found  the  hemerocallis  near  Joppa,  where 
he  arrived  the  13th  of  September,  1575,  which  Dr.  Rus- 
sell describes  as  a  plant  that  makes  not  its  appearance 
till  after  the  first  fall  of  the  autumnal  rain  ;  and  which  town 
Rauwolff  seems  to  have  quitted  the  same  day,  before 
which,  therefore,  the  rain  must  have  fallen. f 

But,  be  this  as  it  may,  it  is  indisputable  that  in  1774  it 
was  found  that  the  rain,   in  the  Holy  Land,  fell  several 

*  P.  137.  t  Ray's  Travels,  p.  228. 


IN  THE  HOLY  L^ND.  l^g 

days  sooner  than  Shaw  assigns  for  its  first  appearance, 
namely,  November  2,  N.S.  or  October  22,  O.S.  in  like 
manner  I  have  been  assured  bj  the  author  of  the  History 
of  ihe  revolt  of  Ali  Bey,  whom  I  consulted  upon  this 
matter,  and  who  lived  some  years  in  Palestine,  though 
born  in  another  part  of  the  East,  that  the  rains  begin  to 
fall  in  the  Holy  Land  about  the  latter  end  of  Sep- 
tember, O.S.  to  which  he  added,  that  in  the  year  in 
which  Ali  Bey  encamped  at  Joppa,*  the  rain  began  to 
fall  before  the  middle  of  September,  O.S.  he  thought 
about  the  7th-. 

This  affords  an  additional  ground  of  believing,  that 
Russell's  account  of  the  weather  at  Aleppo  may  be  con- 
sidered as  descriptive  of  that  at  Jerusalem,  or  very  near- 
ly so.f  Indeed,  as  to  this  point,  the  time  of  the  first  de- 
scent of  the  autumnal  rain,  the  lying  of  one  place  to  the 
South  more  than  another,  seems  to  make  no  great  differ- 
ence, if  any  at  all ;  thus  Niebuhr  informs  us,  that  he 
found  August  and  September  almost  entirely  serene  at 
Basra,  when  he  was  there;  that  on  the  7th  of  October 
clouds  began  to  appear,  and  increased  until  the  27th, 
when  the  rainy  season  began  with  the  storm. J  But  to 
return  to  the  journal  of  1774  :  The  gentleman  that  wrote 
it  was  told,  that  the  rain,  at  that  time,  was  more  than  usual 
at  that  season  of  the  year,  the  rain  generally  preceding 
the  frost,  which  was  then  seldom  earlier  than  Christmas, 
and  then  not  to  any  excess.  This  information  seems  to 
amount  to  this.  That  daily  rain  was  not  usual  so  early  in 
the  year  as  the  beginning  of  November,  but  that,  in  com- 
mon, great  wet  was  wont  to  be  delayed  until  the  approach 

•  A.D.   1772. 

j"  P.  49.  "  After  the  first  rains  in  the  autumn,  the  fields  every  where 
throw  out  the  autumnal  lily  daffodil,  and  the  few  plants  which  had  stood  the 
summer  now  grow  with  fresh  vigour."  Hemeracallis  is,  I  think,  the  latin 
■ame  for  the  autumnal  lily  daffodil. 

k  Voy.en.  Arabic  &  end'autres  payi  circonvoisins,  tnin.  ?,  p.  186. 
roi,.  T.  14 


106  CONCEHNIKG  THE  WEATHER 

of  Christmas,  at  which  time  frosty  weather  tvas  common, 
but  usually  with  no  great  severity. 

It  may  not  be  much  amiss  to  add,  that  travellers  have 
found  the  like  copious  rains  in  Galilee,  about  Christmas, 
that  the  people  of  Jerusalem  spoke  of.  So  Haynes,  who 
visited  several  places  in  Galilee,  in  the  year  1767,  and  ar- 
rived at  Tiberias,  on  the  sea  of  Gennesaret,  on  the  29th 
of  December  of  that  year,  found,  that  a  few  days  before 
he  arrived,  there  had  fallen  very  heavy  rains,  which  ren- 
dered the  streets  exceedingly  muddy,  so  much  so,  that  in 
some  places  it  was  as  high  as  their  horses' knees.* 

I  would  finish  this  article  with  observing,  that  accord- 
ing to  Josephus,f  copious  rain  descended  about  Jerusa- 
lem before  the  Feast  of  Tabernacles,  in  the  year  that 
Antiochus  Pius  besieged  that  city,  ^vo(xivt}g  ir?\Ai»^09,X  the 
Pleiades  being  near  sitting. 

OBSERVATION  III. 

ORIGI*  OF  THE  CtJSTOM  OP  POURING  OUT  WATER  AT  THS 
FEAST  OF  TABERNACLES. 

The  Jews  seem  to  be  at  a  great  loss,  when  they  would 
explain  the  ground  of  that  ceremony  of  pouring  out  wa- 
ter with  solemnity  at  the  Feast  of  Tabernacles  ;  of  which 
ceremony  Moses  says  nothing  in  the  law,  but  to  which 
our  Lord  is  supposed  to  allude  in  the  7th  of  John,  when 
m  the  last  day,  that  great  day  of  the  feast,  Jesus  stood, 
and  cried,  saying,  If  any  man  thirst,  let  him  come  unto 
me  and  drink.  He  that  helieveth  on  me,  as  the  Scrip- 
ture hath  said,  out  of  his  belly  shall  flow  rivers  of  living 
water.  But  this  spake  he  of  the  Spirit,  which  they  that 
believe  on  him  should  receive.\\  It  seems  to  be  of  late 
observance,  and  is  not  well  accounted  for. 

*  P.  125,  126. 

f  Antiq.   lib.   iii.  cap.  8.  sect.  2.  p.  657.    Ed.  Haveroamp. 

-  That  coustellatiou  actually  sets  the  beginning  of  November,    |j  V.  37 — 39 


•'      IN  THE  HOLY  LAND.  10? 

That  festival  is  described  by  Moses  as  a  memorial  of 
the  dwelling  of  Israel  in  tents,  in  the  willl'epfiess  :*  and 
also,  as  being  a  time  of  rejoicing,  on  account  of  the  in«^ 
gathering  of  all  the  fruits  of  the  earth  at  the  end  <^  the 
yeartf  but  no  mention  is  made  of  its  connexion  with  the,, 
rains  that  were  then  soon  expected  to  follow,  until  after  : 
the  return  of  the  Jews  from  iheir  captivity  in  Babylon. 
Then  indeed  the  prophet  Zechariah  said.  It  simll  cpme 
to  pass,  that  every  one  that  is  left  of  all  the  nations  which 
came  against  Jerusalem,  shall  even  go  up,  from  year  to 
year,  to  worship  the  King,  the  Lord  of  Hosts,  and  to 
keep  the  feast  of  Tabernacles.  And  it  shall  be  that  who- 
so will  not  come  up  of  all  the  families  of  the  earth,  unto 
Jerusalem  to  worship  the  King,  the  Lord  of  Hosts,  even 
upon  them  shall  be  no  rain.1[.  Here  it  seems,  that  the 
attending  the  feast  of  Tabernacles  is  connected  with  the 
obtaining  the  rains  of  autumn,  which  are  of  such  conse- 
quence after  the  drought  of  a  Syrian  summer  ;  and  there- 
fore probably  this  rite  then  obtained,  and  the  pouring 
out  water  in  the  temple,  with  solemnity,  as  before  God, 
was  understood  to  be  a  religious  prognostic  of  the  ap- 
proach of  rain,  or  a  morally  instrumental  and  procuring 
cause  of  its  speedy  coming. 

Rabbi  Akibah,  according  to  Dr.  Lighlfoot,||  gives  this 
reason  for  the  pouring  out  the  water  at  this  time:  The 
law  saith,  Bring  an  omer  of  barley  at  the  Passover, 
for  that  is  the  season  of  barley,  that  the  corn  may  be 
blessed.  Bring  wheat  and  the  first  fruits  at  Pente- 
cost, which  was  the  season  of  trees,  that  the  fruit  of  trees 
may  be  blessed  unto  thee.  Bring  the  libation  of  water 
at  the  feast  of  Tabernacles,  that  the  showers  may  be 
blessed  to  thee.  And  accordingly  it  is  said,  that  who- 
ever will  not  come  to  the  Feast  of  Tabernacles  shall  have 
fio  rain. 

•  Ley.  xxiii.43.  f  Deut.  xvi.  13— IG.  -  Cli,  ^iv.  16,  17. 

0  Works,  vol.  ii.  p.  ors. 


108  CONCERNING  THE  WKATHKR 

There  is  something  pleasing  in  this  account,  but  it  will 
hardly  bear  examination.  Pentecost  was  the  time  of 
presenting  the  first  fruits  of  the  wheat,  as  the  Passover 
was  of  the  barley,  but  not  of  the  trees,  at  least  not  of  the 
most  important  of  them|  for  the  vine,  the  olive,  the  fig, 
and  the  pomegranate,  had  not  then  produced  their 
fruit.*  The  first  fruits,  however,  of  these  trees  were 
presented,!  perhaps  at  this  Feast  of  Tabernacles,  but  the 
wati^r  could  not  be  considered  in  a  similar  light,  for  the 
water  that  was  presented  was  not  the  first  of  the  rainwater 
of  that  autumn,  but  what  remained  of  the  rains  of  the  pre- 
ceding season.  Babbi  Akibah  then  should  not  have 
classed  the  water  of  this  libation,  with  other  things  that 
were  the  first  fruits  of  the  mercies  they  had  received  from 
God.  Akibah's  account,  however,  is  far  preferable  to 
that  of  Maimonides,  which  follows  immediately  after  in 
Lightfoot. 

The  truest  account  perhaps  is,  thai  this  rite  was  deriv- 
ed from  the  Persians,  and  other  neighbouring  nations, 
among  whom  they  dwelt  in  the  time  of  their  captivity, 
but  more  properly  applied. 

Abris,  according  to  d'Herbelot,J  signifies  in  Persian 
a  vessel  proper  for  the  pouring  out  of  water,  from  whence 
is  formed  the  word  Abrisan,  or  Abrisghian,  which  is 
the  name  of  a  feast,  that  the  old  Persians  solemnized  on 
the  13th  day  of  the  month  Tir,  which  nearly  corresponds 
with  our  month  of  September,!)  with  abundance  of  idola- 

*  Dr.  Chandler  foand  that  Ibe  wheat  harvest,  and  almonds  so  far  ripened 

as  to  be  pleasant  to  eat,  were  coincident  things  in   Greece.    Trav.  p.  207 

—211. 

fDeut.  xxvi.  +  Page  17. 

II  The  fourth  month  in  the  ancient  Persian  year  was  called  ^j^  Teer 
answering  to  our  June.  Teer  was  an  angel,  who  was  supposed  to  preside 
over  Cattle.  The  13lh  of  this  month  was  solemnized  by  the  festival  call- 
ed f^OjOyjT»?6reer5-an,  during  which  all  sorts  of  people  sprinkled  each 

other  with  water,  the  higher  rank  using  water  of  roses,  of  orange  flowers, 
and  of  other  odoriferous  plants.  But  the  ceremony  of  sprinkling  with  wa- 
ter was  not  confine<l  to  this  festival,  as  it  is  not  only  made  part  of  the  enter- 
tainment of  the  JVoorooz,  or  new  year's  day,  but  also  of  the  JHihrgan,  a 
festival  which  was  celebrated  on  the  16th  of  the  month  Miht,  which  an- 
swers to  our  iS'ep<cni6cr.  Edit. 


"IN  THE  HOLY  LANB.  ig§ 

trousitt^erstifions  :  but  the  Persians  of  our  times,  who 
are  become  Mohammedans,  have  retained  nothing  more 
of  this  festival  than  the  aspersion  of  rose  or  orange  flower 
water,  with  which  they  regale  one  another,  in  the  visits 
they  make  each  other  that  day,  which  commonly  fallt 
<^out  about  the  autumnal  equinox. 

This  ancient  heathenish  festival,  whose  name  signifiet 
the  pouring  out  of  water,  and  was  apparently  preparato- 
ry to  the  descent  of  the  rain  in  those  countries,  being 
about  the  time  of  the  autumnal  equinox,  has  been  adopted 
by  the  Mohammedans  in  part,  who  are  as  zealous  against 
every  thing  of  an  idolatrous  nature  as  the  Jews  could  ever 
have  been.  Might  not  the  returning  Jews  then  think  of 
adding  some  memorial  of  Jehovah's  being  the  Giver  of 
Rain,  to  that  ancient  national  solemnity  that  had  been  en> 
joined  by  Moses,  to  be  observed  just  about  the  same  time 
of  the  year  with  that  of  the  Persian  festival,  which  that 
people  with  solemnity  ascribed  to  some  deity  they  wor- 
shipped, but  which  the  Jews  knew  was  the  gift  of  Jeho- 
vah ?* 

We  all  know  how  readily  the  Christians,  of  the  coun- 
tries that  lie  West  of  the  meridian  of  Jerusalem,  adopted 
many  of  the  religious  practices  of  their  unconverted  coun- 
trymen ;  and  though  we  may  not  have  been  equally  ap- 
prized of  it,  the  Mohammedans  of  the  more  eastern  parti 
of  the  world  have  frequently  done  the  same.  Might  not 
the  Jews  be  influenced  by  some  of  the  same  motives? 
Human  nature  is  much  the  same  in  all  parts  of  the  world. 

The  Mohammedans  of  Persia,  in  like  manner,  now  ob- 
serve the  first  day  of  every  new  year,  according  to  the 
reckoning  oftbeir  ancient  heathen  countrymen,  namely,  the 
precise  day  in  which  the  sun  enters  into  Aries,  which  is 
in  March.  This  is  a  way  of  computation  of  the  year  quite 
diflerent  from  that  which  their  religion  has  taught  them, 
according  to  which  their  new  year's  day  is  moveable,  and 
falls  out  in  length  of  time  in  all  seasons,  autumn  as  well  ai 

•  See  Note,  p.  108. 


110  CONCERNING  THE  WEATHER 

spring,  summer  as   well  as  winter.     For   some    time,  we* 
are  told  by  Sir  John  Cliardin,*=  the  Mohammedans  of  Ihii^, 
country  would  not  observe  the  first  day  of  the  solar  yenVii^ 
out  of  opposition  to  those  that  persisted  in  their  old  coun- 
try worship  of  fire,    considering   it  as  consecrated   by*> 
them  to  the  sun,  which  they  thought  was  idolatrous,  andv' 
therefore  abhorred  all  public  rejoicing  that  day.     But  all 
length,  the  lucky    circumstance  of  one  of  their   princes 
happening  to  succeed  to  the  crown  that  day,  revived  the 
observation,  and   it  is  now  celebrated  with  great  splen-*' 
dour;  the  exact  time  of  the  entering  of  the  sun  into  this 
sign  of  the  zodiac  being  observed  by  their  astronomers 
with  great  care.     And  with  the  greatest  joy  an  old  cus** 
lom  is  revived,  of  presenting  one  another  with  painted  and 
gilded  eggs,  some  of  them   being  so  curiously  done  as  to 
cost  three  ducats  apiece. f     This  it  seems  was  a  very  an- 
cient custom  in   Persia,  an  egg  being  expressive  of.  the 
origin  and  beginning  of  things.  .? 

Nor  is  this  the  only  instance  that  this  ingenious  travel-* 
ler  remarked  ;  for  he  tells  us  in  another  page, J  that  the? 
first  of  October  was  a  festival,  called  by  the  Persians  the 
Luminous  Night,  in  which  God  is  disposed  in  a  special 
manner  to  attend  to  their  prayers,  and  is  accordingly  spent 
by  their  devout  people  in  reading  and  in  prayer^  He 
adds,  that  it  is  believed  to  have  been  instituted  in  lieu  of 
another,  very  much  like  it,  which  was  observed  by  the 
old  Persians  the  16th  of  the  month  Bahmen,  which  was 
called  the  Festival  of  Lights,  the  solemnity  consisting 
principally  of  illuminations  and  bonfires,  kept  up,  accord- 
ing to  their  circumstances,  through  the  whole  night. 

An  attention  to  what  has  happened  of  late  times  in  Per- 
sia, may  probably  dispose  us  to  imagine,  that  the  like 
might  happen  to  the  Jewish  captives,  and  that  they  might 
be  disposed,  at  their  return,  to  join  the  Persian  custom 
of  pouring  out  water  with  solemnity  about  the  time  of  the 

*  Veyages,  tome  1,  p.  171.  \  Seven  or  eight  aid  twenty  shillings. 

i  Tome  3,  p.  191. 


*  THE  HOLY  LAND-  HI- 

autumnal  equinoXj  a  little  before  the  rains  were  expected 
to  fall,  to  the  Mosaic  Feast  of  Tabernacles,  which  was 
solemnized  about  the  same  time  of  the  year. 

I  will  only  add,  that  if  they  presented  ivater  at  all  to 
God,  it  was  to  be  done  according  to  the  spirit  of  their  law, 
by  solemnly  pouring  it  out  before  him  ;  so,  according  to 
the  institutions  of  Moses,  blood,  which  was  sacred  to  God, 
was  poured  out  before  him  :  and  by  presenting  things  to 
God,  they  were  taught  to  acknowledge  they  received 
them  from  him.  Consequently,  though  it  was  not  com- 
manded, the  pouring  out  water  before  God,  when  they 
implored  the  descent  of  rains,  was  not  abhorrent  from 
their  other  usages. 

After  all,  it  is  very  possible  that  the  occasional  pour- 
ing out  water  before  God,  with  a  view  to  the  obtaining 
rain  from  him,  in  times  of  drought,  by  such  a  solemn  ac- 
knowledgment that  they  considered  it  as  his  gift,  might 
be  practised  long  before  the  captivity  in  Babylon,  and  be- 
fore its  becoming  an  annual  ceremony.  Thus  we  find, 
when  Israel  assembled  at  Mizpeh,  bewailing  their  preced- 
ing idolatries,  they  drew  water,  and  poured  it  out  before 
the  Lord,  and  fasted  on  that  day,  and  said  there,  We 
have  sinned  against  the  Lord.     1  Sam.  vii.  6.  '  i* 

I  do  not  know  that  any  of  the  commentators  have  sup- 
posed, that  this  pouring  out  water  at  Mizpeh  before  the 
Lord  was  supplicatory,  and  expressive  of  their  praying 
for  rain  ;  but  if  it  is  admitted,  that  the  pouring  out  water 
afterward,  at  the  Feast  of  Tabernacles,  had  a  relation  to 
rain,  I  think  it  can  be  no  improbable  conjecture,  that  it 
had  a  like  signification  in  the  time  of  the  Prophet  Samuel. 
We  know,  by  undoubted  evidence,  that  Judea  was  liable 
to  suffer  by  drought,*  and  that  God  threatened  to  punish 
them  for  their  sins  by  the  want  of  rain  ;f  on  the  other 
hand,  something  particular,  we  may  suppose,  was  the  oc- 
casion of  rousing  them  from  a  stupor  that  had  lasted  twen- 

*  I  Kings  xvil-  I.     Amos  iy.  7,  Jcc.         fDeat. si.  IT.    1  King?  viii,  >■>*. 


ylJjt  CONCERNING  THE  WB^f  HER 

ty  year8,=^  and  no  fresh  distress  from  the  Philistines,  pre^ 
vious  to  the  meeting  at  Mizpeh,  is  insinuated.  Thunder^^ 
which  was  granted  in  consequence  of  the  prayers  of  Sam-^ 
tieljf  is  represented  by  Russell  as  frequently  the  forerun- 
ner of  rain  in  those  countries  ;|  and  Jbhovah  had  claim- 
ed the  sole  power  of  giving  rain,  in  contradistinction  from 
idoIs,||  and  had  directed  them  to  pray  with  solemnity  for 
that  mercy,  when  they  were  brought  to  repent  of  their 
idolatries,^  which  might  naturally  be  supposed  to  induce 
them,  on  the  expostulations  of  Samuel,  to  gather  together 
for  humiliation  and  prayer  before  God^  at  Mizpeh,  and  to 
pour  out  water  before  him,  in  acknowledgment  that  they 
admitted  it  was  his  gift  alone,  and  that  all  their  hopes  were 
derived  from  his  mercy. 

OBSERVATION  IV. 

OP   THUNDER    SHOWERS    IIT    JDDEA,  WITH    AN    ILLUSTRA^ 
TION  OF  FIRST  SAM.  XII.  16 — 18. 

But  though  commonly  there  is  no  rain  at  Aleppo 
through  the  whole  summer,  yet  sometimes  there  is  such 
a  thing  as  a  smart  thunder  shower. 

So  Dr.  Russell  tells  us,^  that  in  the  night  betwixt  the 
first  and  second  of  July,  1743,  some  severe  thunder  show- 
ers fell ;  but  adds,  that  it  was  a  thing  very  extraordinary 
at  that  season.  Possibly  it  may  be  more  uncommon  still  at 
Jerusalem,  for  St.  Jerom,  who  lived  long  in  the  Holy  Land, 

•  1  Sam.  vii.  2.       f  V-  9'  10-        +  Vol.  i.  p.  72,  and  Vol.  ii.  p.  285— «. 

II  Job  V.  8,  9, 10.  Deut.  xi.  14,  17,  and  how  these  passages  were  under- 
stood and  explained  to  the  Jewish  people,  appears  from  Jer.  xiv.  22.  ^re 
^fftere  any  among  the  vanities  of  the  Gentilet  that  can  cause  rain  ?  or  can 
4he  heavens  give  showers  ? 

$  So  God  afterward  explained  to  Solomon,  2Chron.  vii.  12 — 14,  the 
leu  strictly  expressed  precept  given  by  Moses,  and  the  promise  offorgive- 
aess  upon  their  repentance,  Lev.  xxvi.  19,  20,  40,  41,  42. 

%  Vol  ii.  p.  289. 


IN  THE  HOLY  LAND.  US 

denies,  in  his  commentary  on  Amos,  his  having  ever  seen 
rain  in  those  provinces,  and  especially  in  Judea,  in  the 
end  of  JiKie,  or  in  the  month  of  July ;  but  if  it  should  be 
found  to  be  otherwise,  and  that,  though  St.  Jerom  had 
never  seen  it,  such  a  thing  may  now  and  then  happen 
there,  as  it  did  at  Aleppo  while  Dr.  Russell  resided  in 
that  city,  the  fact  recorded  1  Samuel  xii.  16 — 18,  might 
nevertheless  be  an  authentic  proof  of  what  Samuel  affirm- 
ed: since  a  very  rare  and  unusual  event,  immediately 
happening,  without  any  preceding  appearance  of  such  a 
thing,  upon  the  prediction  of  a  person  professing  himself 
to  be  a  prophet,  and  giving  this  as  an  attestation  of  his 
being  a  messenger  of  God,  is  a  sufficient  proof  of  a  divine 
mission,  as  is  also  its  happening  at  any  after  time,  dis* 
tinctly  marked  out,  though  a  like  event  has  sometimes 
happened  without  any  such  declared  interposition  of  God, 
and  therefore  understood,  on  all  hands,  to  be  casual  and 
without  design.  Bp.  Warburton  has  sufficiently  argued 
this  point  in  his  Julian,  where  he  supposes  those  fiery 
eruptions,  crosses,  &c.  which  happened  upon  that  empe- 
ror's attempt  to  build  the  Jewish  temple  at  Jerusalem, 
were  such  as  have  happened  at  other  times,  without  any 
particular  meaning,  and  yet,  as  they  were  then  circum- 
stanced, were  an  authentic  attestation  to  the  truth  of 
Christianity.  It  should  not  be  forgotten  that  this  thun. 
der  and  rain  of  Samuel  seem  to  have  been  in  the  day 
timet  and  while  Samuel  and  the  Israelites  continued  to- 
gether, solemnizing  Saul's  inauguration,  which  circum" 
stance  added  considerably  to  the  energy  of  this  event, 
Dr.  Russell  informing  us,*  that  the  rains  in  those 
countries  usually  fall  in  the  nighty  as  did  those  uncommon 
thunder  showers  of  July,  1743. 

*  Vol,  a.  p.  282. 
TOL.    I.  1.^ 


tH  CONCERNING  THE  WEATHER 

■»•' '    '■■'-^« 

OBSERVATION  V. 

METHOD  OF  WATERING  THEIR  GROUNDS  IN  THE  EAST. 

This  drought  in  summer  occaaioiis  frequent  waterings 
in  Judea. 

Dr.  Pococke,  in  his  journey  from  Acre  to  Nazareth,* 
observed  a  well,  from  whence  water,  drawn  up  by  oxen, 
was  carried  by  women,  in  earthen  jars,  up  a  hill,  to  water 
plantations  of  tobacco.  He  mentions  another  well  pres- 
ently  after,  whose  water  was  drawn  up  by  boys,  in  leather 
buckets,  and  carried  off  in  jars,  by  women,  as  before. 

If  it  should  be  asked  now,  how  does  this  agree  with 
those  passages  of  Scripturef  that  distinguish  the  Holy 
Land  from^Egypt,  by  its  drinking  the  rain  from  heaven, 
while  Egypt  was  watered  with  the  foot  ?  The  answer,  I 
imagine,  that  should  be  returned  is  this :  Those  passages 
themselves  suppose  gardens  of  herbs,  and  consequently 
such  plantations  as  these,  were  to  be  watered  by  art  in  the 
Jewish  country,  and  the  difference  designed  to  be  pointed 
out,  was  the  necessity  the  Egyptians  were  under  of  wa- 
tering their  corn  lands  in  the  same  manner,  to  prepare 
them  for  sowing;  whereas  the  lands  of  Judea  are  prepared 
by  the  descent  of  rain.  These  lands  of  Egypt,  indeed, 
are  watered  by  the  overflowing  of  the  Nile,  and  are  by 
that  so  saturated  wifh  moisture,  that  Maillet  assures  us, J 
they  want  no  more  watering  for  the  producing  of  corn, 
and  several  other  things,  though  the  gardens  require  fresh 
supplies  of  moisture  every  three  or  four  daysj  but  then 
it  is  to  be  remembered,  that  immense  labour  was  requisite 
to  conduct  the  waters  of  the  Nile  to  many  of  their  lands : 
Maillet  himself  celebrates  §  those  works  of  the  ancient 
kings  of  Egypt,  by  which  they  distributed  the  waters  of 
the  Nile  through  their  whole  country,  as  the  greatest,  the 

•V.2.  p.  61.  t  Deut.  xi.  10,  11. 

\  Descr.  de  I'Egypte,  Let'  ix.  p,  5.  §  Let.  2.  p.  45. 


'A  •     I2J  THE  HOLY  LAND.  115 

most  magnificent,  and  the   most  admirable   of  all  their 
works ;  and  these  labours  which   thej  caused  their  sub- 
jects to  undergo,   doubtless  were  designed  to  prevent 
much  heavier,  which  thej  must  otherwise  have  submitted 
to.*     And,  perhaps,  there  might  be  an  emphasis  in  those 
words  of  Moses,  which  has  not  of  late  been  at  all  under- 
stood :  for  Maillet  tells  us,t  that  he  was  assured  that  the 
large  canal  which  filled  the   cisterns  of  Alexandria,  and 
which  is  at  least  fifteen  leagues  long,  was  entirely  paved, 
and  its  sides  lined  and  supported  by  walls  of  brick,  which 
were  as   perfect  as    they   were  in   the  times  of  the  Ro- 
mans :  if  bricks  were  used  in  the  construction  of  their 
more  ancient  canals,   and  those  made  by  the  Israelites  in 
Egypt  designed   for  purposes   of  this  kind,   they  must 
have  heard  with  great  pleasure  the  words  of  Moses,  assur- 
ing them   the  country  to  which   they  were  going  would 
want  no  canals   to    be  dug,  no  bricks   to  be  prepared  for 
paving  and   lining   them,  in  order  to  water  it,  which  la- 
bours had  been  so  bitter  to  them  in  Egypt.     Exod.i.  14, 
favours  this  account :  hard  bondage,  in  mortar  and  brick, 
is  joined  there    with  other  services  of  the  field.     Philo 
understands^  those  services  of  the  field,  of  digging  canals 
and    cleansing  them ;    and    the    mortar  and    the   brick, 
are,  in  this  view,  very  naturally  joined  with  them. 
i 

»  •  The  MS.  C,  in  a  note  on  Prov.  x\-ii.  14,  informs  us,  that  great  brawl- 
ingfs  frequently  attend  the  opening  these  watering  canals  in  the  East ;  and 
he  supposes  that  interpreters  have  not  well  understood  that  text,  which  he 
imagined  referred  to  these  brawlings.  According  to  this,  tlie  sense  of  the 
Royal  Preacher  is,  leave  off  contention,  before  it  be  meddled  with,  for 
strife  will  be  like  the  brawlings  at  opening  a  watering  canal  ;  but  is  not  this 
saying,  strife  will  be  like  strife  ?  The  Jews  certainly,  whether  they  had,  or 
had  not,  instances  of  that  kind  in  their  own  country,  were  not  unacquaint- 
ed with  the  terrible  effects  of  inundations,  which  soraetiines,  destructive  as 
they  are,  arise  from  small  breaches,  -2  Sam.  v.  20,  and  Lam.  ii.  13.  Thy 
breach  is  great  like  the  sea,  or  rather  "  like  a  sea,"  some  mighty  lake,  -who 
can  heal  thee?  plainly  prove  this.  And  to  destructive  events  ef  this  kind 
Solomon,  I  suppose,  refers,  and  compares  the  beginning  of  strife  to  tbtse 
small  outlets,  which  are  every  moment  enlarging,  until  the  inundation  proves 
irretrievably  destructive. 

t  Let.  iv.  p.  144.    Let  i.\,  p.  S,  C,  *  See  Patrick  on  the  place. 


IJd  CONCERNING  THE  WEATHER 

Dr.  Shaw  has  explained*  the  term  watering  with  the 
foot  in  the  follotving  important  observation  : 
jfer"Such  vegetable  productions  as  require  more  moisture 
than  what  is  occasioned  by  the  inundation,  of  the  Nile, 
arc  refreshed  by  water  drawn  out  of  the  river  by  instru- 
ments, and  lodged  afterward  in  capacious  cisterns.  W  hen, 
therefore,  their  various  sorts  of  pulse,  melons,  sugar  canes, 
&c.  all  which  are  commonly  ploughed  in  rills,  require 
to  be  refreshed,  they  strike  out  the  plugs  that  are  fixed 
in  the  bottom  of  the  cisterns;  and  then  the  water  gush- 
ing out  is  conducted  from  one  rill  to  another  by  the  gar- 
dener; who  is  always  ready,  as  occasion  requires  to  stop 
and  divert  the  torrent,  by  turning  the  earth  against  it,  hy 
his  foot,  and  opening,  at  the  same  time,  with  his  mattock, 
a  new  trench  to  receive  it.  This  method  of  converting 
moisture  and  nourishment  to  a  land  rarely  or  ever  re- 
freshed with  rain,  is  often  alluded  to  in  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures; where  also  it  is  made  the  distinguishing  quality 
betwixt  Egypt  and  the  land  of  Canaan.  For  the  land, 
says  Moses,  Deut.  xi.  10,  11,  whither  thou  goest  into 
possess  it,  is  not  as  the  land  of  Egypt,  from  whence  ye 
came  out,  where  thou  sowedst  thy  seed,  and  wateredst  it 
with  thy  foot,  as  a  garden  of  herbs  :  but  the  land  whith- 
er ye  go  to  possess  itf  is  a  land  of  hills  and  valleys,  and 
drinketh  water  of  the  rain  of  heaven. 

May  I  take  the  liberty  of  adding  to  this  account,  that 
this  way  of  watering,  by  conveying  a  little  stream  to  the 
root  of  plants,  is  so  universal,  that  though  the  Mishna  for- 
bids all  watering  of  plants,  in  the  seventh  year,  as  con- 
trary to  their  law,  R.  Eleazar  allows  the  watering  the  leaf 
of  a  plant,  though  not  the  root  !f  A  stranger  to  the  Eas- 
tern management  would  hardly  know  what  to  make  of 
this  indulgence. 

*  p.  408.  j-Intit.Shebiith. 


OBSERVATION  VI.  ,^H|||% 

^IME  OF  PLOUGHING  AND  SOWING  IN  BARBART  AND  III 
JUDEA. 

Dr.  Shaw  seems  to  suppose,  that  the  Arabs  of  Barbary 
do  not  begin  to  break  up  their  grounds  until  the  first  rains 
of  autumn  fall  ;*  but  as  the  Journal  of  1774  makes  men- 
tion of  ploughing  the  ground,  before  it  mentions  the  fall 
of  the  autumnal  rains,  so  the  author  of  the  History  of  Ali 
Bey's  Revolt,  in  his  conversation  with  me  on  that  subject, 
supposed  they  sometimes  plough  the  land  before  the  de- 
scent of  rain,  the  soil  being  light  and  capable  of  being  stir- 
red without  diflSculty. 

There  is  nothing  incredible  in  this :  grain  will  lie  long 
in  the  earth  unhurt,  and  spring  up  upon  the  coming  of 
rain,  as  is  often  experienced  in  England.  The  like  plough- 
ing and  sowing  may  be  practised  in  the  East  in  expecta- 
tion of  rain,  and  indeed  seems  to  be  referred  to  by  Solo- 
mon, Eccl.  xi.  4,  He  that  observeth  the  wind  shall  not 
sow ;  and  he  that  regardeth  the  clouds  shall  not  reap. 
If  the  earth  was  always  moistened  with  rain  when  they 
sowed  their  grain,  there  would  be  no  occasion  to  observe 
the  wind,  whether  it  was  from  a  quarter  that  was  wont  to 
produce  rain,  or  such  as  usually  brought  fair  weather:  but 
if  grain  was  sown  previous  to  the  coming  of  the  rain,  but 
in  expectation  of  it,  they  might  naturally  enough  be 
induced  to  wait  until  they  saw  the  signs  of  its  ap- 
proach, particularly  the  blowing  of  the  wind  that  was 
wont  to  bring  rain,  and  not  sow  until  those  signs  at  least 
appeared. 

OBSERVATION  VII. 

OF  THE  WINDS  AT  ALEPPO,  AND  IN  THE  HOLT  LAND. 

The  same  obliging  gentleman,  who  favoured  me  with 
the  preceding  account  of  the  rainy  nature  of  the  weather, 

•  P.  137. 


If»  CONCERNING  THE  WEATHER 

when  he  was  at  Jerusalem,  in  the  month  of  November, 
1774,  informed  me,  at  the  same  time,  that  "  the  wind 
that  usually  brings  rain  there  is  the  North  East."  ThiSf 
I  apprehend,  is  to  be  understood  of  the  rainy  weather  of 
the  beginning  of  the  winter,  not  of  that  of  the  spring,  which 
probably  comes  from  another  quarter. 

I  was  somen^hat  surprised,  I  own,  when  I  first  received 
this  account,  since  our  Lord  says,  Luke  xii.  54,  Whe7iye<' 
see  a  cloud  rise  out  of  the  West,  straightway  ye  say,  ther^. 
Cometh  a  shower  ;  and  so  it  is :  and  especially  as  this' 
very  late  visitant  of  the  Holy  Land  appears  to  me,  to  have 
been  careful  in  making  his  observations,  and  accurate  io 
communicating  them. 

But  upon  consulting  Dr.  Russell,  on  the  weather  at 
Aleppo,  I  find  that  the  winds  there  are  variable  in  No- 
vember, seldom  strong,  but  more  inclined  to  the  North 
and  East  than  any  of  the  other  quarters.*  He  gives  the 
same  account  of  the  direction  of  the  winds  in  Decemberf 
and  January. J  Concerning  February,  he  says,  "  the 
winds  are  much  as  in  the  preceding  month,  until  toward 
the  end,  and  then  it  sometimes  blows  hard  westerly ."|[ 
As  to  March,  that  "the  winds  are  stronger  than  in  the 
preceding  months,  and  blow  much  oftener  westerly. "§ 
April  is,  "  in  general,  fair,  clear  weather  ;  seldom  dark  or 
cloudy,  except  when  it  rains,  which  it  does  in  hard  thun- 
der showers,  as  in  the  last  month,  but  not  so  often.  There 
are  commonly  a  few  close,  hazy  days ;  these  happen 
when  there  are  light  breezes  northerly,  or  easterly,  but 
the  winds  in  general  are  fresh  westerly."^  In  May  the 
wind  is  sometimes  northerly  or  easterly,  but  "  for  much 
the  greater  part  is  fresh  and  westerly.*'** 

The  observations  therefore  which  this  gentleman  lately 
made  himself  at  Jerusalem,  and  which,  from  his  way  of 
writing,  seem  to  have  been  conformable  to  what  had  been 

•  Vol.  ii.  p.  286.  t  P-  287'-  t  P-  282. 

II  P.  282.  §  P.  28S,  ^  P.  28r.  ••  P.  28?. 


IN  THE  HOLY  LAND.  119 

usually  observed  by  those  that  resided  in  that  country, 
concerning  the  direction  of  the  wind  there  in  the  time  of 
the  beginning  of  the  winter's  rain,  perfectly  agree  with 
Dr.  Russell's  account  of  the  weather  at  Aleppo  at  that 
season. 

i  But  at  Aleppo  the  wind  alters  in  the  rainy  season,  and 
begins  to  blow  from  the  West  in  February,  and  continues 
to  do  so  till  May,  after  which  seldom  any  more  rain  falls 
at  Aleppo  until  the  autumn,  when  the  wind  is  commonly 
Dorfh-easterly. 

This  very  fresh  account  from  Jerusalem  then  confirms 
the  supposition,  that  the  weather  is  much  the  same  in 
Judea  as  at  Aleppo,  and  serves  to  determine  that  our 
Lord  made  this  observation  to  the  people  in  the  spring, 
his  words  being  a  description  of  the  weather,  the  wind  and 
the  rain,  as  they  are  in  the  spring,  not  as  they  are  in  the 
close  of  autumn,  or.  the  beginning  of  winter. 

The  lilies,  then,  which  are  mentioned  in  the  27'th  verse 
of  this  chapter  of  St.  Luke,  might  be  growing,  at  that 
very  time,  before  the  eyes  of  his  auditors.  How  far  this 
observation  may  be  useful  to  those  that  endeavour  nicely 
to  determine  the  time  of  our  Lord's  ministry  upon  the 
whole,  or  the  particular  seasons  when  any  of  the  events 
happened  which  the  Evangelists  have  recorded^  I  leave 
to  the  examination  of  my  readers. 

OBSERVATION  VIIL 

VERY    SMALL    CLOUDS,  THE    FORERUNNERS    OF    VIOLENT 
STORMS  AND  HURRICANES. 

Ingenious  travellers  have  supposed  the  kind  of  cloud 
which  the  servant  of  Elijah  saw,  1  Kings,  xviii.  44,  like 
a  man's  hand,  is  a  natural  prognostic  of  rain,  and  observ- 
ed as  such  in  the  East  at  this  day ;  perhaps  it  may  be 
lo  in  the  West  too. 

So  Sir  J.  Chardin  in  his  MS.  tells  us,  great  storms  are 
wont  to  be«;ia  with  such  a  gort  of  cloud,  and  that  it  is  the 


i20  CONCERNING  THE  WEATHER 

sign  of  them  at  sea  j  and  he  proposed  to  illustrate  this 
passage  by  what  he  had  observed  in  going  from  Ormus 
to  Basra,  with  Captain  Nicholas  Vidal. 

I  am  sorry  we  have  only  this  memorandum,  and  that  I 
cannot  find  a  complete  account  of  the  observations  he 
made  on  this  point,  in  these  papers. 

A  very  learned,  ingenious,  and  observing  clergyman, 
in  Suffolk,  made  this  memorandum^  on  reading  the  para- 
graph I  have  referred  to :  "I  saw  a  cloud  like  a  man^s 
handf  on  an  high  hill  at  Beachborough  in  Kent,  and  im- 
mediately followed  by  a  violent  shower,  then  fair  again." 

Yet  I  believe  the  figure  of  the  cloud  seen  at  Mount 
Carmel,  is  commonly  considered  as  an  unmeaning  circum- 
stance in  the  prophetic  history,  for  want  of  due  observa- 
tion.* 


OBSERVATION  IX. 

TIME    OF    THE    TINTAGE   AND  OLIVE    GATHERING. 

St.  Jerom  has  appeared  to  be  so  careless  and  inaccu- 
rate,  in  bis  accounts  relating  to  the  natural  history  of  Ju- 
dea,  that  I  have  expressed  myself  with  some  doubt,  as  to 
the  time  he  assigns  for  the  vintage  of  that  country ;  but 
it  appears  from  this  late  account,  of  I7r4,  that  he  was  suf- 
ficiently exact  upon  this  subject,  and  that  the  vintage  of 
Judea  is  not  earlier  than  at  Aleppo. 

St.  Jerom  placed  it  in  the  end  of  September  or  begin- 
ning of  October.  This  gentleamn  accordingly  found,  that 
in  the  year  1774  it  did  not  begin  till  the  middle  of  Octo- 
ber, N.S. 

*  I  have  noticed  this  oElen  at  sett,  and  have  seen  it  repeated  several  times 
on  the  same  daj  in  the  English  Channel.  A  cloud,  aboat  the  tize  of  a 
matft  hand,  first  appeared ;  this  gradually  increased  till  the  whole  heavens 
were  robed  in  black,  and  a  dreadful  storm  was  the  consequence.  When 
the  storm  had  discharged  itself,  and  all  was  comparatively  clear,  the  reap* 
pearance  of  the  hand-tike  cloud  vna  the  undoubted  eri deuce,  as  it  was  the 
for eronaer,  of  another  storni  •  E  p  i  t. 


The  vintage  and  olive  gathering  are  probably  coinci- 
dent, or  nearly  so,  for  Sig.  Lusignan  told  me,  the  last,  in 
the  Holy  Land,  is  wont  to  be  in  the  latter  end  of  Septem- 
ber, O.  S. 

Consequently,  there  could  be  but  just  time,  in  common^ 
to  gather  in  all  the  fruits  of  the  earth,  and  for  the  Isra. 
elites  to  have  returned  home  to  their  several  countries, 
from  celebrating  the  Feast  of  Tabernacles  at  Jerusalem, 
before  the  rain  began  to  descend. 

"*  As  the  Jews  were  frequently  obliged  to  intercalate 
their  years,  on  account  of  the  backwardness  of  the  spring, 
with  regard  to  their  barley,  their  lambs,  and  their  pig- 
eons,* so  I  think  I  have  somewhere  found  it  affirmed, 
that  they  were  cautious,  not  unnecessarily,  to  admit  of  an 
intercalation,  lest  their  people  should  not  be  able  to  get 
home  from  the  Feast  of  Tabernacles  before  the  rains  fell.f 
,  This  implies  two  things  :  that  the  rain  might  be  ex- 
pected to  fall  soon  after  the  Feast  of  Tabernacles ;  and 
that  the  autumnal  rain  would  incommode  them  in  journey- 
ing. 

It  might  be  supposed,  from  the  account  Dr.  Russell 
gives  of  the  extreme  pleasantness  of  the  season,  after  the 
first  rains  of  autumn  have  fallen, J  that  this  would  have 
been  no  disagreeable  circumstance  to  those  Jews  that  had 
far  to  travel :  but  I  would  remark,  that  Rauwolff  com- 
plains of  being  retarded  in  his  journey  by  the  autumnal 
rains  ;  and  others  have  mentioned  their  frequently  lodg- 
ing, during  their  journies,  under  trees,  without  any  other 
defence  against  rain  which  might  fall,  as  it  often  does 
there  in  the  night,  and  in  very  heavy  showers. §  To 
this  is  to  be  added,  the  consideration  that  the  autumnal 
rains  are  generally  preceded  by  a  squall,  in  the  nature  of 

•  See  Lightfoot  on  Matt.  xii.  1.  vol.  ii,  p.  185. 

fThougli  not  mentioned  by  Reland,  in  his  account  of  their  cautiousness 
In  intercalating  their  years,  in  his  Antiq.  Sacise,  p.  4,  cap.  1. 

:;  Descript.  of  Aleppo,  Vol.  i.p.  68,  <j9.  §  Vol.  ii.  p.  289. 

VOL.  I.  Ifi 


12J  CONCERNING  THE  WEATHER 

a  wfairlirind,  a  day  or  two  before  the  first  rains  fall,*  whicb 
must  make  travelling  extremely  disagreeable,  in  coun- 
tries where  the  soil  is  so  often  very  light  and  sandy. 

The  complaint  of  Rauwolff,  which  I  was  mentioning, 
is  in  the  beginning  of  his  5th  ch.  part  i.  where  he  tells  us, 
that  he  and  his  companions  set  out  for  Aleppo,  from 
Tripolis,  the  9th  of  November.  "  By  the  way,  we  met 
with  a  great  deal  of  rain,  which  copmonly  begins  at  that 
time  of  the  year,  and  continues  almost  all  the  winter  long. 
This  kept  us  so  much  back,  that  we  reached  not  to  Da- 
mant,  which  is  in  the  midway  from  Tripolis  to  Aleppo, 
before  the  fourth  day."  Tripolis  lies  in  the  common 
way  from  Jerusalem  to  Aleppo  and  to  Antioch,  and  other 
places  to  the  North :  many  Jews  had  to  travel  South- 
westward,  through  the  Deserts,  to  Egypt  ;  but  perhaps 
the  most  of  them  Eastward  and  North-eastward  to  Baby- 
Ion,  to  Mesopotamia,  to  Media,  and  elsewhere  that  way, 
where  they  dwelt  in  great  numbers,  and  had  very  flour- 
ishing settlements. 

If  the  first  rains  did  not  fall  in  the  road  from  Tripolis 
to  Aleppo  until  the  9th  of  November,  1573,  O.  S.  it  cer- 
tainly began  a  fortnight  sooner  in  Judea  itself,  in  the 
year  1774  ;  and  Niebuhr  found  the  rainy  season  began 
with  a  storm,  on  the  27th  of  October,  at  Basra.f 

Rain  certainly  falls,  from  time  to  time,  in  the  Desert 
between  Judea  and  Egypt  ;J  but  how  early  it  begins  to 
fall  there  in  autumn,  I  do  not  remember  to  have  seen 
mentioned  in  any  traveller;  but  if  a  preceding  remark  I 
have  made  be  true,  namely,  that  the  being  situated  more 
or  less  toward  the  South,  in  those  countries  that  seldom 
have  any  rain  all  summer,  and  expect  none  until  autumn, 
makes  very  little,  if  any  difference  as  to  the  time  of  the 
falling  of  those  rains,  the  rain  might  overtake  the  Egyp- 
tian Jews  in  passing  over  that  Desert,  as  well  as  those 
that  lived  in  other  countries,  if  the  Feast  of  Tabernaclei 

*  Vol.  L  p.  68,  69.  t  Voy.  tome  ii.  p.  186. 

iGistaDei,  pp.  1010,  1011. 


IN  THE  HOLY  L\ND.  123 

was  too  long  delayed  :  for  in  all  these  different  countries 
the  rain  appears  to  fall  much  about  the  same  time. 
^  In  confirmation  of  which,  I  would  add  to  the  observa- 
tions of  Russell  at  Aleppo,  and  of  Niebuhr  at  Basra,  near 
six  degrees  more  to  the  South,  the  account  of  what  Pietro 
della  Valle  found  in  the  Desert,  by  the  Euphrates,  in  his 
way  to  Bagdad.  Departing  from  Anna,  October  lltb, 
1616,  they  pursued  their  voyage  on  the  Mesopotamian 
side  of  the  river,  and  found  rain,  for  the  first  time  in  this 
their  journey,  the  evening  of  that  day,  which  was  attend- 
ed with  a  wind  so  violent  and  furious  as  that  it  overturned 
all  their  tents ;  but  that  storm  did  not  continue  long,  be- 
ing over  in  less  than  an  hour.* 

Through  this  Desert  great  numbers  of  Jews  must  have 
had  to  pass,  in  their  way  to  Babylon,  and  many  other 
towns  in  the  southern  part  of  Mesopotamia,  and  on  the 
Tigris  ;  and  such  storms  of  wind  as  should  overturn  their 
tents,  in  the  midst  of  a  heavy  shower,  must  have  been 
very  inconvenient. 

OBSERVATION   X. 

NATnRE  OF  THE  SUMMERS  AND  WINTERS  IN  THE  HO- 
LT    LAND. 

As  the  summers  of  the  Holy  Land  are  perfectly  dry, 
its  winters  are  wet. 

At  Palmyra,f  and  Mount  Sinai,J  it  seldom  rains  but  at 
the  equinoxes  ;  and  Lightfoot  seems  to  have  imagined 
there  was  nearly  the  same  limitation  on  the  rain  in  Judea, 
for  he  supposes  that,  excepting  the  rains  of  Marhesh- 
van  and  Nisan,  there  was  generally  no  rain  in  that  country. § 
But  Lightfoot  was  mistaken,  its  weather  is  very  different 
from  what  it  is  at  Palmyra  and  Mount  Sinai,  and  more  re- 
sembles the  weather  at  Aleppo  and  Algiers,  according  to 

•  Let.  17.  t  Ruin"  of  Palmyra,  p.  i7.  1  Shaw,  p.  hT-,%. 

§  V.  ii.  p.  409. 


124  COXCERNING  THE  WEATHER 

the  descriptions  of  Russell  and  Shaw  :  that'is,  the  winter 
months  are  indiscriminatelj  more  or  less  wet.  This  suf- 
ficiently appears  by  what  I  have  cited  out  of  Jacobus  de 
Vitriaco,*  and  is  confirmed  by  other  authors  in  that  col- 
lection, entitled  Gesta  dei  per  Francos.  So  the  Arch- 
bishop of  Tyre,!  giving  us  an  account  of  the  Prince  of 
Antioch's  journey  to  Jerusalem,  soon  after  it  was  taken, 
tells  us,  that  many  of  his  company,  through  want  of  food, 
intenseness  of  the  cold,  and  heaviness  of  the  rains,  per- 
ished; adding,  for  it  was  winter,  the  month  of  December. 
That  month  then,  is  often  a  rainy  one.  Fulcherins  Car- 
notensis,  who  was  in  this  journey,  and  saw  many  of  both 
sexes  die,  besides  numbers  of  their  beasts,  says,  they 
were  kept  wet  for  four  or  five  days  together,  by  the  con- 
tinual rains. J  In  like  manner  this  William  of  Tyre  also 
tells  us,  that  K.  Baldwin  IV.  of  Jerusalem,  returned  to 
Ascalon,  after  having  gained  a  great  victory  in  its  neigh- 
bourhood over  the  troops  of  Saladine,  on  the  25th  of  No- 
vember, 1175,  or  lire,  in  order  to  give  time  for  his  forces, 
who  were  scattered  in  pursuing  the  enemy,  to  reassemble, 
which  they  did  in  four  days;  this,  he  remarks,  was  a  very 
lucky  circumstance,  because  on  the  following  day,  and  so 
on  for  ten  days  successively,  such  was  the  quantity  of 
rain  that  fell,  and  such  the  severity  of  the  cold,  that  the 
elements  seemed  to  conspire  the  ruin  of  such  troops  as 
were  unsheltered,  obliging  those  of  Saladine  to  surrender 
themselves.  Judea  then  is  not  one  of  those  places  where 
it  only  rains  at  the  equinoxes,  these  severe  showers  being 
in  December.  Fulcherius  Carnotensis  likewise,  in  giving 
an  account  of  another  expedition,  tells  us,  it  was  under- 
taken in  the  showery  month  of  February, I|  that  then  is  al- 
so a  wet  mdnth ;  and  consequently,  the  winter  months  are 
rainy,  indiscriminately. 

And  accordingly,  the  Hebrew  word,  --jin  choreph,  which 
we  translate  winter,  seems  rather  precisely  to  mean  the  wet 

•  Under  the  first  Observation.  t  P-  ^7*-  +  P-  ^^^^>  l^H. 

'I  P.  421.  Dum  mensis  Februus  adhucimbribus  hybernis  terras  cohiberet 


IN  THE  HOLY  LAND.  125 

seasotr. "-  'O  that  I  were  as  in  months  past,  says  Job,  ch. 
xxix.  2,  4,  as  in  the  days  when  God  preserved  me  ;  as  I 
was  in  the  days  of  my  winter  !  In  the  days  of  his  moist 
time,  that  is,  when,  as  he  expresses  it  in  the  19th  and  20th 
verses,  3Iy  root  was  spread  out  by  the  waters,  and  the  den 
lay  all  night  upon  my  branch  ;  my  glory  7vas  fresh  in 
me.  Not  in  the  days  of  his  disgrace  then,  the  days  in 
which  he  was  stripped  of  his  ornaments,  as  an  herb  of 
its  leaves  and  flowers  in  the  winter,  but  like  a  plant  in 
the  latter  part  of  the  rainy  season,  before  the  violent 
heats  and  drought  come  on,  which  scorch  and  burn  up  ev- 
ery thing.* 

Buxtorf,  in  his  Epitome,  supposes,  indeed,  that  this 
word,  which  is  derived  from  a  root,  signifying  dishonor 
and  reproach,  is  made  use  of  to  express  the  time  of  win- 
ter, because  it  dishonors  the  trees  or  shrubs  by  taking 
away  their  greenness  and  splendour;  but  may  it  not  be 
as  well  occasioned  by  the  disagreeableness  that,  in  one 
view  of  things,  attend  the  rainy  season  ;  when,  as  a  polite 
writer  expresses  it,  "  the  heavens  are  filled  with  clouds, 
when  the  earth  swims  in  rain,  and  all  nature  wears  a  low- 

• 

ering  countenance."!  A  description  which,  by  its  force, 
almost  induces  that  melancholy  on  the  mind,  which  those 
uncomfortable  scenes,  those  dark  disconsolate  seasons,  so 
often  bring  upon  it. 

OBSERVATION  XI. 

SEVERITY    OF    THE    COLD    IN    WINTER. 

That  the  frost  and  cold  are,  in  some  winters,  very  se- 
vere in  Jerusalem,  and  even  in  some  of  the  lower  parts  of 
Judea,  appears  from  Vinisauf,  who  confirms  the  account, 

•  Ratlier,  "  in  the  days  of  his  autumn,"  when  the  heats  of  summer  were 
abated,  and  the  trees  and  fields  being  stripped  of  their  fruits,  plenty  was 
heaped  upon  his  board.    Edit. 

t  Spect.  No.  83. 


126  CONCERNING   THE  WEATHER 

that  rain  or  snow  are  not  uncommon  in  the  middle  of  win- 
ter at  Jerusalem  ;  that  they  are  sometimes  in  very  great 
quantities ;  and  the  cold  very  severe. 

For  speaking  of  a  consultation  among  the  crusaders  a 
few  days  after  Epiphany,  January  6th,  1192,^  whether 
they  should  make  an  attempt  on  Jerusalem,  or  postpone 
its  recovery  to  a  more  advantageous  time,  he  tells  us,  the 
Turks,  who  had  shut  themselves  up  in  Jerusalem,  were, 
at  that  time,  in  a  very  distressed  state,  oppressed  by  ex- 
cessive snow  and  hail,  which  melting,  occasioned  great 
torrents  from  the  mountains,  sweeping  away  their  horses 
and  cattle  in  droves,  and  killing  others  with  the  violence 
of  the  cold.f 

It  appears  from  hence,  that  a  bridge  over  the  brook  Ke- 
dron  may  be  very  requisite,  though  its  bed  should  be 
found  to  be  often  dry  in  winter  as  well  as  summer,  since  if 
the  torrent  was,  at  the  time  Vinisauf  speaks  of,  so  very  de- 
structive, it  must  be  supposed  to  be  often  so  considerable 
as  to  make  a  bridge  very  necessary. 

A  few  days  after,  it  appears  by  the  succeeding  page, 
the  cold  was  so  severe  at  Raraula,  whose  situation  is  lower, 
and  less  exposed  to  the  severity  of  the  weather,  that  the 
waters  were  so  frozen  as  to  make  the  travelling  of  beasts 
of  burden  very  troublesome.  It  was  not,  however,  so  great 
as  to  prevent  their  sinking  in  muddy  places.         i   *itf,t 

It  appears  in  the  next  chapter,  but  same  page,  that  soon 
after,  in  removing  from  thence.  King  Richard  found  the 
ways  so  dirty  as  to  be  extremely  fatiguing.  But  the  next 
morning's  journey  made  them  forget  the  difficulties  of  the 
preceding  day  :  "  for  the  frozen  snow  driving  in  their  faces, 

•  In  the  printed  copy  it  is  by  mistake  MCXXII,  but  it  is  certain  that 
MCXCII,  is  the  year  meant. 

f  Turci  quippe,  qui  intra  Jerusalem  civitatcm  sc  cohibebant,  perniciosis- 
simis  angustiabantur  suppliciis  multimodis  ;  nivium  enim  et  grandium 
(grandinum)  opprimebantur  nimietate,  ex  quarum  nihilomlnus  resolutioni- 
busaquarura  diluvium  k  montanisdefluens,  equos  eorum  etjumenta  caterva- 
tlm  involvit,  vcl  certe  frigoris  asperitas  necavit.    P.  S73. 


IN  THE  HOLY  LAND.  127 

thick  storms  of  hail  descended  with  so  much  force  as  to 
rebound  with  violence,  the  rains  occasioned  such  torrents, 
as  that  there  seemed  to  be  a  concurrence  of  every  circum- 
stance that  tended  to  overwhelm  them,  the  boggy  ground 
at  the  same  time  giving  way  so  much  as  to  occasion  the 
horses  to  fall,  and  many  of  them  to  perish."*  At  length 
after  much  distress,  they  arrived  at  Ascalon,  the  20th  of 
January.  This  sharp  weather  then  was  in  the  low  lands, 
at  Ramula,  and  the  road  from  thence  to  Ascalon,  and  hap- 
pened between  the  6th  and  20th  of  January. 

It  appears  from  circumstances,  for  the  times  are  not 
distinctly  marked,  that  the  following  descriptions  relate 
to  the  preceding  month  of  December,  or  at  furthest  the 
last  days  of  November.  The  first  of  them  occurs  in  p. 
369,  where  he  tells  us,  that  the  army  under  King  Richard 
being  encamped  between  St.  George'sf  and  Hamula,  ex- 
pecting more  troops  as  well  as  provisions,  they  continued 
there  twenty  two  days,  exposed  not  only  to  frequent  at- 
tacks, but  to  the  rains,  which  became  so  heavy  as  to 
force  them  to  retire,  some  to  St.  George's,  some  to  Ra- 
mula. 

Proceeding  in  this  account,  and  describing  their  going  to 
the  foot  of  the  hilly  part  of  the  country,  toward  Jerusa- 
lem, he  informs  us,  that  at  that  time  most  heavy  rains  fell, 
and  the  air  was  very  severe,  so  that  very  many  of  their 
beasts  perished  ;  that  the  rains,  storms  of  hail,  and  winds, 
were  so  vehement,  that  the  stakes  of  their  tents  were  torn 
up,  and  carried  to  a  distance  ;  that  by  the  extremity  of 
the  cold  and  wet  their  horses  perished,  and  the  greatest 
part  of  their  victuals  were  spoiled;  their  biscuit  being 
soaked  through,  and  their  bacon  decayed;  their   arms 

•  Fesli  nimirum  dura  proficiscerentur,  gelida  nives  impluunt  vultibus, 
S^andinum  densitates  reverberant,  pluvia;  torrentea  involvunt,  ut  tanquam 
ad  examinandum  orane  cslutn  deputaretur  affligendis,  scd  et  terra  pedibus 
oedcbat  ambulantium  ccenulenta,  locis  palustribus  deoidunt  veredarii  equi 
et  homines,  qui,  dum  solicitius  tolo  oonaniinc  claborant  emergere,  despera- 
bilius  rcvolvuntur  in  praeccps,  quamplurimi  non  amplius  evasuri.  O  ((nis 
mtimaret  illius  antaritudiuem  diei  ? 

t  Or  LyUUa. 


128  CONCERNING  THE  WBA.THER 

dreadfully  rusted,  and  their  clothes  greatly  damaged."* 

p.  sn.  » 

Such  is  the  description  this  writer  gives  us  of  the  De- 
cember of  the  year  1191,  and  of  the  following  January,  as 
they  found  the  weather  in  that  country  ;  and  as  no  inti- 
mation is  given  to  the  contrary,  we  are  to  suppose  Vini- 
sauf  believed  there  was  nothing  very  unusual  in  it,  but 
that  he  apprehended  such  were  the  winters,  very  frequent- 
ly of  that  country. 

So  this  writer  describes  the  preceding  winter  as  be- 
ing very  wet,  which  was  the  cause  of  great  sickness  among 
the  pilgrims,  "  unheard  of  rains  pouring  down  very  fre- 
quently, nay  continually,  and  causing  inundations. f 

How  desirable  would  it  be,  that  some  accurate  observ- 
ers would  examine,  by  means  of  exact  Imbrometers,  the 
quantity  of  rain  wont  to  fall  in  the  Holy  Land,  of  which 
this  ancient  writer  makes  such  heavy  complaints ! 
'  ^' The  vehemence  of  the  wind  is,  we  see,  often  mention- 
ed in  these  accounts  of  the  heaviness  of  the  rains.  This 
circumstance  is  also  mentioned  by  this  writer,  or  some 
other,  whose  account  of  the  taking  Damiata,  in  the  year 
1219,  is  subjoined  to  the  history  of  the  expedition  of  Rich- 
ard I. 

There  we  are  told,  that  in  a  preceding  excursion  J  into 
the  Holy  Land,  when  the  Patriarch  and  the  Cross  were 
not  present,  they  suffered  many  difficulties  and  hardships, 
partly  from  robbers,  and  partly  from  the  disagreeable- 
ness  of  the  winter  season,  particularly  in   their  travel- 

*  Tunc  nobis  ingruebant  pluvise  gravissimae,  et  aeris  interaperies  aseTissi- 
lliia;  unile  jumentorum  nostrorum  periere  quampluriraa,  tanta  quippe  cx- 
orta  est  tempesta*  pluviarum,  grandinum,  ventorumque  vehenientium  ir- 
rucbant  fragores,  ut  papilionum  palos  avellerent,  et  longius  dejicerent ;  et 
equi,  frigoris  magnittidine,  et  niniietate  aquarura  perirent,  etpars  maxima 
victualium  panit  biscoctus  distemperabatur  in  dissolutionem,  et  carnes  su> 
illse,  vulgariter  bacones,  computrescebant,  &c. 

•j"  P.  249.  Prseterea,  ex  nimia  imbrium  inundatione,  qu«dara  nimium  ve- 
hemens  excrevit  in  hominibus  inJSrmitas ;  maut/tVo?  quidem  pluvise  assidue, 
ino  coatiaue,  exercitum  tanta  afTecit  injuria,  &cc. 

±  la  the  year  i2l7. 


IN  THE  HOLY  LAND.  129 

ling  on  Christmas  Eve,  and  in  the  succeeding  sacred 
night,  in  which  they  had  to  go  through  an  heavy  land- 
tempest  of  wind  and  rain.  This,  it  seems,  happened  when 
they  were  in  the  borders  of  Tyre  and  Sidon,  near  to  Sa- 
repta.^ 

Yinisauf,  however,  admits  that  the  summers  of  that 
country  are  wont  to  be  dry ;  for,  toward  the  end  of  his 
history,  he  observes,  that  by  the  advice  of  the  most  ju- 
dicious of  those  whom  they  consulted,  they  were  oblige'd 
to  give  over  the  design  of  besieging  Jerusalem  in  the  sum- 
mer of  the  year  1192,  because,  he  tells  us,  "The  festival 
,of  St.  Johnf  was  at  hand,  when  all  things  were  naturally 
dry,  the  heat  increasing,  especially  about  Jerusalem, 
which  is  seated  in  the  mountainous  part  of  the  country ; 
and  that  the  Turks  had  stopped  up  all  the  cisterns  on  ev- 
ery side  of  the  city,  so  that  no  water  that  was  drinkable 
could  be  come  at  within  two  miles."J 

It  has  been  confirmed  too  by  those  that  have  lived  in 
these  countries,  notwithstanding  the  severe  cold  that  is 
sometimes  f«lt  there,  that  unless  particular  winds  blow, 
it  is  perfectly  pleasant  sitting  with  the  chamber  windows 
open,  in  the  Christmas  holidays,  as  I  have  been  assured 
by  a  very  curious,  inquisitive,  and  learned  clergyman, 
who  had  the  account  of  this  circumstance  from  Dr. 
Shaw,  from  a  Turkey  merchant  who  had  lived  at  Smyr- 
na or  Aleppo,  and  from  an  English  chaplain  even  at  Leg- 
horn. 

OBSERVATION  XII. 

THE  SUBJECT  CONTINUED,  WITH  A  FURTHER  ACCOUNT 
OF  THE  RAINS  IN  THE  EAST. 

FuLCHERius  Carnotensis  saw  the  cold  prove  deadly 
to  many.     Jacobqs  de  Vitriaco§  informs  us,  that  the  same 

•  P.  437.  t  Midsummer.  i:P.  408. 

f  Gcsta  Dei  per  Francos,  p.  lloD. 
VOL.    I.  17 


130  CONCERNING  THE  WEATHtR 

thing  happened  to  many  of  the  poorer  people,  engaged  in 
an  expedition  in  which  he  himself  was  concerned,  against 
Mount  Tabor :  they  had  suffered  severely  the  preceding 
days  by  cold,  but  on  the  24th  of  December  it  was  so 
sharp,  that  many  of  the  poor  people,  and  of  the  beasts  of 
burden,  actually  died.  Albertus  Aquensis  tells  us,*  the 
same  thin?  happened  to  thirty  of  the  people  that  attend- 
ed King  Baldwin  I.  in  the  mountainous  districts  of  Arabia 
by  the  Dead  Sea,  where  they  had  to  conflict  with  horri- 
ble hail,  with  ice,  and  unheard  of  snow  and  rain.  We 
have  sometimes,  it  may  be,  wondered  that  an  eastern 
author,  in  an  hymn  composed  for  the  use  of  those  warmer 
climates,  should  say  of  God,  He  givelh  his  snow  like 
woolyj  he  scattereth  the  hoarfrost  like  ashes f  he  casteth 
forth  his  ice  like  morsels :  who  can  stand  before  his  cold! 
Psalm  cxlvii.  16,  17,  The  preceding  citations  may  re- 
move that  wonder. 

But  how  do  these  accounts  agree  with  Jerom's  descrip- 
tion of  the  Holy  Land,  in  a  letter  to  Marcella  ?  Vol.  iv, 
p.  553.  "  If  it  is  summer,  the  shade  of  the  trees  will  af- 
ford a  place  of  retirement:  if  autumn,  the  leaves  under 
the  trees,  united  with  the  temperateness  of  th€  air, 
will  point  out  a  place  where  you  may  enjoy  your- 
self in  quiet.  In  the  spring  the  ground  is  painted  with 
flowers,  and  the  singing  of  psalms  will  be  more  sweet 
when  joined  with  the  music  of  birds.  If  it  be  the  time 
of  wintry  cold  and  snow,  I  will  buy  no  wood,  and  yet 
be   warmer,  than    you  at  Rome,    whether   sleeping    or 

•  P.  307. 

f  If  the  snow  in  Judea  was  like  what  falls  in  some  coantriesof  the  Eaat« 
there  is  a  grealer  energy  in  these  words  than  we  are  aware  of  in  common, 
as  Sir  John  Chardin,  in  his  MS  note  on  this  passage,  tells  us,  that  toward 
the  Black  Sea,  in  Iberia  and  Armenia,  and  he  should  imagine  therefore  ia 
some  other  countries,  the  snow  falls  in  flakes  as  big  as  walnuts,  but  not 
being  either  hard,  or  very  compact,  it  does  no  other  hurt  than  presently 
covering  and  overwhelming  a  person.  This  is  to  us  Englishmen  a  curiosi- 
ty belonging  to  natural  history ;  and  if  David  was  acquainted  with  such 
snow,  he  might  well  say,  He  giveth  his  snoto  like  -wool  ;  Certainly  a  flake 
of  snow  as  big  as  a  walnut,  would  to  a  British  eye,  at  a  distance,  appear 
more  like  a  small  lock  of  wool  than  what  it  really  was. 


m 

IN  THE  HOLY  LAND.  131 

waking.  At  least,  I  am  sure,  I  shall  guard  myself  from 
cold  with  less  fuel."*  This  father  lived  long  in  that 
country,  and,  from  what  other  travellers  have  observed, 
his  testimony  will  appear  to  be  worthy  of  credit.  But  I 
shall  give  here  the  substance  of  Dr.  Russell's  account 
of  the  weather  at  Aleppo  which  very  much  resembles  that 
of  Judea,  by  which  account  further  light  may  be  thrown 
on  some  preceding  remarks,  and  I  shall  be  enabled  to 
propose  many  things  yet  to  come,  on  this  subject,  much 
more  advantageously  than  otherwise  I  can  do. 

The  substance  then  of  the  Doctor's  account  is,  "that 
the  seasons  at  Aleppo  are  very  regular.  That  the  first 
rains  fall  about  the  middle  of  September,  and  greatly  re- 
fresh the  air,  which  was  before  extremely  hot,  and  if  the 
rains  have  been  at  all  plentiful,  though  of  few  hours  du- 
ration, they  give  a  new  face  to  the  country,  which  looked 
before  extremely  barren  and  parched.  That  from  the 
first  rains  to  the  second,  the  interval  is  at  least  between 
twenty  and  thirty  days,  and  that  time,  the  weather  is  tem- 
perate, serene,  and  extremely  delightful.  That  after  the 
second  rains  the  weather  is  variable  till  May,  from  the 
end  of  which,  if  not  sooner,  not  so  much  as  one  refreshing 
shower  falls,  and  scarcely  a  friendly  cloud  appears  io 
shelter  from  the  excessive  heat  of  the  sun,  till  about  the 
middle  of  September.  That  the  verdure  of  the  spring 
fades  before  the  middle  of  May,  and  before  the  end  of 
that  month  the  whole  country  puts  on  so  parched  and  bar- 
ren an  aspect,  that  one  would  scarcely  think  it  capable  of 
producing  any  thing,  there  being  but  very  few  plants 
which  have  vigour  enough  to  resist  the  extreme  heat. 
That  the  more  delicate  never  make  fires  till  about  the 
end  of  November,  and  some  few  pass   the  whole  winter 

*  Si  ^itat  est  secretum  arboris  umbra  pr^ebebit :  si  ^utumnus,  ipse  aci-is 
teraperies,  et  strata  subter  folia,  locum  quietisostcndunt.  Vere  ager  flori- 
bus  pingitur,  et  inter  queriilas  aves  psalmi  dulcius  cantabuntur.  Si  frigus 
f  ijerit  etbrttmalea  nives,  ligna  non  cocmam,  et  calidius  vif^ilabn,  vol  doiini- 
am.    Certe  quod  sciain  villus  non  ali^cLo, 


132  CONCERNING  THE  WEATHER 

without  them.  That  the  frees  begin  to  lose  Ihcir  leaves 
before  the  middle  of  that  month,  and  the  generality  of 
them  begin  to  be  stripped  then.  That  the  nativeb  reckon 
the  severity  of  the  winter,  which  they  call  Murbania,  to 
last  but  forty  days,  beginning  from  the  12th  of  December, 
and  ending  the  20th  of  January  ;  and  that  this  computation 
comes  in  fact  very  near  the  truth.  That  the  air  during 
this  time  is  excessively  piercing,  even  to  them  that  are 
but  just  come  from  a  cold  climate;  however,  that  in  the 
depth  of  winter,  when  the  sun  is  out,  and  there  is  no  wind, 
it  is  warm,  nay  sometimes  almost  hot,  in  the  open  air. 
That  in  the  thirteen  years  that  he  resided  there,  the  ice 
was  not  above  three  times  of  sufficient  strength  to  bear  a 
man,  and  this  only  in  the  shade  and  with  using  caution; 
and  that  snow,  excepting  three  years,  never  laid  above  a 
day.  That  the  narcissus  is  in  flower  during  the  whole  of 
this  weather,  and  hyacinths  and  violets  at  the  latest  ap- 
pear before  it  is  quite  over.  That  as  February  advances, 
the  fields,  which  were  partly  green  before,  now,  by  the 
springing  up  of  the  latter  grain,  become  entirely  covered 
with  a  pleasing  verdure :  and  though  the  trees  continue 
in  a  leafless  state  till  the  end  of  this  month,  or  beginning 
of  March,  3  et  the  almond  when  latest  being  in  blossom 
before  the  middle  of  February,  and  quickly  succeeded  by 
the  apricot  and  peach,  &c.  give  the  gardens  a  delightful 
appearance,  and  the  spring  becomes  exceedingly  pleas- 
ant." To  this  account  the  Doctor,  in  the  close  of  the 
book,  added  a  distinct  description  of  the  weather  of  the 
several  months,  and  a  still  more  minute  history  of  the 
weather  of  the  years  1752  and  1753,  which  the  more  curi- 
ous will  do  well  to  consult.  Descript.  of  Aleppo,  vol.  i. 
p.  63,  &c. 

St.  Jerom  then  is  not  all  rhetoric.  In  the  depth  of 
winter  it  is  frequently  warm,  nay  almost  hot,  in  the  open 
air ;  and  consequently,  in  the  interval,  betwixt  the  fall  of 
the  leaf  in  November,  and  the  coming  on  of  the  depth  of 
winter,  a  recluse  might  enjoy  himself  very  comfortably  in 


IN  THE  HOLY  LAND.  133 

his  meditations  abroad.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  often 
piercingly  cold  from  the  121h  of  December  to  the  20th  of 
January,  even  to  those  that  are  lately  come  out  of  a  cold 
climate,  and  this  joined  with  great  labours  and  fastings 
might  easily  prove  fatal  to  those  that  had  no  tents,  and 
were  without  other  accommodations,'  as  J.  de  Vitriaco,  in 
the  Gesta  Dei  per  Francos,  affirms  it  did  to  many.  Nor 
is  it  at  all  strange  that  a  continual  wet,  and  the  cold  on  the 
top  of  mountains,  should  produce  the  same  effect  earlier  in 
the  year,  as  it  seems  they  did,  from  what  Fulcherius  Carno- 
tensis  and  Albertus  Aquensis  have  told  us ;  for  Egmont 
and  Heyman  complain  of  the  severity  of  the  cold  on  the 
top  of  Mount  Sinai,*  in  July  or  the  beginning  of  August, 
the  hottest  time  of  the  year.f  Agreeably  to  this  San- 
dys assures  us,  that  when  he  was  at  Sidon,  a  Moor, 
who  was  returning  with  an  English  merchant  from  Da- 
mascus, perished  with  cold  on  the  top  of  Antilibanus, 
while  the  heat  was  excessive  in  the  vallies  on  each  side. 

If  the  rains  of  December  are  sometimes  so  extremely 
cold  in  the  Holy  Land,  we  shall  not  at  all  wonder  when 
we  recollect  this  circumstance,  notwithstanding  what  St. 
Jeromhas  said,  that  the  people  in  a  public  assembly  held 
in  the  open  air,  on  the  20th  of  the  9th  month,  that  is  some 
time  in  December,  and  which  proved  a  wet  time,  should 
shudder  with  cold.  All  the  people  sat  in  the  street  of  the 
house  of  GoBi  says  the  sacred  historian,  trembling  be- 
cause of  this  matter,  and  for  the  great  rain.  Ezra  x.  9. 
St.  Jerom  himself,  elsewhere,  supposes  the  cold  of  that 
country  to  be  frequently  too  severe  to  be  borne  by  those 
that  might  be  glad  to  secrete  themselves  for  fear  of  their 
lives,  for  so  in  his  letter  to  AlgasiaJ  he  understands,  as  to 
the  literal  sense,  the  direction  of  our  Lord  to  his  disciples, 
to  pray  that  their  flight  might  not  be  in  winter,  the  sever- 
ity of  the  cold  being  such  as  would  not  permit  them  to 
conceal  themselves  in  the  deserts.     Agreeably  to  this, 

*  Vol.  ii,  p.  169.  t  A'  appears  fi-om  other  places  of  that  work. 

i  Vol.  iii.  p.  160. 


134  CONCERNING  THE  WEATHER 

and  at  (he  same  time  a  lively  comment  on  these  words  of 
our  LoBD,  is  that  account  William  of  Tyre  gives*'  of  Ihc 
state  of  Saladine's  troops,  after  their  defeat  in  Ihe  neigh- 
bourhood of  Ascalon,  which  I  took  some  notice  of  under 
the  last  observation,  but  which  ought  here  to  be  more  par- 
ticularly set  down.  "  They  for  haste  threw  away  their 
armour  and  ciothe6,f  but  so  sunk  under  the  cold,  with 
want  of  food,  tediousness  of  the  ways,  and  greatness  of 
the  fatigue,  that  they  were  daily  taken  captives  in  the 
woods,  mountains,  and  wildernesis,  and  sometimes  threw 
themselves  in  the  way  of  their  enemies,  rather  than  per- 
ish with  cold  and  want."  Pray  ye  that  your  fliglU  be 
not  in  the  winter. 

OBSERVATION  XIII. 

MANNER  IN  WHICH  THE  OOPTS  SPEND  THEIR  LEISURE 
TIME,  AFFORD1N6  AN  ILLUSTRATION  OF  EZEE. 
XKXIII.  30. 

Severe  however  as  sometimes  the  cold  weather  is  in 
these  countries.  Dr.  Russell  observes,  that  even  in  the 
depth  of  that  season  when  the  sun  is  out,  and  there  is  no 
wind,  it  is  warm,  nay  sometimes  almost  hot,  in  the  open 
air;  and  Dr.  Pococke  informs  us  that  the  people  there 
enjoy  it,  for  the  Coptics  spend  their  holy  days  in  saun- 
tering about,  and  sitting  under  their  walls  in  winter,  and 
under  shady  trees  in  summer.J 

This  doubtless  is  to  be  understood  of  those  of  the  poorer 
sort,  who  have  no  places  more  proper  for  conversation 
with  their  friends  ;  the  better  sort  of  houses  in  the  East 
having    porches,  or  gateways,  according  to  Dr.  Shaw, 

•  Gesta  Dei  per  Francos,  p.  1101. 

•j-  Vestium  genera  quselibet,  not  all  their  clothing  absolutely,  but  their 
hykes  and  buriiooes,  according  to  Dr.  Shaw's  remark,  page  226,  which 
they  found  entangled  them,  and  retarded  their  flight. 

!f  Travels  into  the  East,  v.  i.  p.  175. 


IN  THE  HOLY  LAND.  igg 

with  benches  on  each  side,  where  the  master  of  the  family 
receives  visits,  and  despatches  business,  few  persons,  not 
even  the  nearest  relations,  having  further  admission,  ex- 
cept upon  extraordinary  occasions. =^ 

Will  not  these  two  circumstances  greatly  illustrate 
those  words  of  Ezekiel,f  Also  thou  son  of  man,  the  chil- 
dren of  thy  people  still  are  talking  against  thee,  or  rather 
concerning  thee,  p,  by  the  walls,  and  in  the  doors  of 
the  houses,  and  speak  one  to  another,  every  one  to  his 
brother,  saying,  come,  I  pray  you,  and  hear  what  is  the 
word  that  cometh  forth  from  the  Lord? 

It  is  somewhat  strange  that  our  translators  should  have  ren- 
dered the  words  talking  against  thee,  when  the  Septuagint 
rendered  them  yn^i  cov,  of,  or  concerning  thee  ;  when  it 
is  the  same  Hebrew  particle  that  is  used  Ps.  Ixxxvii.  3. 
Glorious  things  are  spoken  ofthee^  O  city  of  God!  and 
when  the  following  words  iqcontestably  show,  they  were 
speaking  honorably  of  Ezekiel,  and  indeed  assuming  the 
appearance  of  those  Malachi  mentions,  in  a  passage  where 
the  same  conjugation  of  the  verb  is  used  as  in  this  of 
Ezekiel,  Then  they  that  feared  the  Lord,  spake  often  one 
to  another,  and  the  Lord  hearkened,  and  heard  it,  and  a 
book  of  remembrance  was  written  before  him,  for  them 
that  feared  the  LiOKJi,  and  that  ihought  upon  his  name, 
Mai.  iii.  16. 

It  was  winter,  the  tenth  month,  answering  to  the  latter 
end  of  December,  or  first  part  of  January,  when  these 
things  were  transacted, J  therefore  they  sat  under  the 
walls  for  the  benefit  of  the  sun,  rather  than  under  the 
trees  to  avoid  its  heat,  while  they  talked  concerning  Eze- 
kiel ;  while  persons  among  them  in  better  circumstances 
sat  in  their  porches  or  gateways. 

That  they  use  their  porches  or  gateways  in  winter  as 
well  as  in  summer,  appears  from  Dr.  Pococke's  waiting 
on  a  person  of  distinction  in  Upper  Egypt,  an  Aga  of  the 
Janizaries,  whom  he  found  sitting,  according  to  their  cus- 

•  P.  QQ7.  t  Cli.  xxxiii.  30.  *  Baek.  xxxiii.  21- 


188  CONCERNING  THE  WEATHER 

answers  fo  Russell's  account,  who  says,  the  most  deli- 
cate make  no  fires  till  the  end  of  November. 

How  long  they  continue  the  use  of  them  he  does  not 
say,  but  we  know,  from  other  hands,  that  they  continue 
to  use  them  in  Judea  far  into  the  spring  :*  Bp.  Pococke, 
set  outf  for  Jerusalem  on  the  17th  of  March  in  the  even- 
ing, and  was  conducted  by  an  Arab  guide  to  his  tent, 
which  was  two  or  three  miles  off;  there  he  was  treated 
with  bread  and  coffee,  he,  the  Arab's  wife,  and  some  eth- 
er people,  he  tells  us,  sitting  by  a  fire.  He  goes  further, 
for  he  says, J  that  in  the  night  of  the  8th  of  May  the 
Sheikh  of  Sephoury,  a  place  in  Galilee,  made  them  afire, 
in  a  ruined  little  building,  and  sent  them  boiled  milk, 
eggs,  and  coffee:  the  fire  therefore  was  not  designed  for 
the  preparing  their  food,  but  for  the  warming  them.  No 
wonder  then  that  the  people  who  went  to  Gethsemane,  to 
apprehend  our  Lord,  thought  a  fire  of  coals  a  considera- 
ble refreshment  at  the  time  of  the  Passover,§  which  must 
have  been  earlier  in  the  year  than  the  8th  of  May,  though 
it  might  be  considerably  later  than  the  17th  of  March. ^ 

It  may  not  be  amiss  to  add,  that  as  they  use  fires 
against  the  cold  of  their  winters,  they  also  use  furred  gar- 
ments very  frequently,  in  these  countries,  on  account  of 
the  cold,  which  is  a  circumstance  that,  I  believe,  must 
occasion  a  good  deal  of  surprise  to  many  of  my  readers. 

So  Dr.  Russell  informs  us,  that  the  vests  that  are  worn 
hy  well  dressed  people,  in  the  spring  or  autumn,  are  not 

*  On  tliis  passage,  I  found  the  following  note  in  a  copy  of  this  work  in 
the  ha7id  writing  of  the  late  Dr.  Russell . • 

Generally  in  JI/arcA,  that  is,  the  Europeans.  The  people  of  the  coun- 
try seldom  longer  than  February  ;  but  fires  are  occasionally  made  in  the 
Tvet  seasons,  not  only  in  March,  but  in  April  also ;  and  would  be  accepta- 
ble at  the  gardens  sometimes  even  in  May,  Edit. 

fVol.ii.  p.  5.  +P.  62.  §  John  xviii.  18. 

fl  Dr.  Russell,  MS.  note,  says,  the  nights  in  that  season  are  often  very 
cold,  and  of  this,  people  are  rendered  more  sensible  by  the  heats  of  the 
day.  In  May,  June,  and  even  July,  travellers  very  often  put  on  furs  in  the 
evening.  Edit. 


IN  THE  HOLY  LAND.  ^^Q 

unfrequendj  lined  with  short  haired  furs,  as  sable,  erinin, 
squirrel,  See.  and  that  the  robe  which  constitutes  a  full 
dress  in  the  winter,  is  lined  with  long  haired  fur,  such  as 
is  taken  from  the  ounce,  foxes  of  different  kinds,  &c.* 
Some  of  them  also  sleep  in  winter  in  their  furs.f 

As  in  collecting  their  prey,  the  Israelites  were  wont  to 
gather  together  what  was  most  valuable  and  magnificent, J 
it  is  not  impossible  that  things  made  of  skins,  mentioned 
Numb.  xxxi.  20,  might  mean  such  kind  of  dresses;  but  I 
cannot  by  any  means  persuade  myself,  with  Sir  J.  Char- 
din  in  his  MS.  that  when  Solomon  says,  the  lambs  are  for 
thy  clothing,  Prov.  xxvii.  26,  he  had  any  reference  to 
those  furs  that  are  sometimes  taken  from  Iambs  in  the 
East,  and  which  are  greatly  esteemed :  "  In  cold  countries* 
says  that  writer,  furs  are  greatly  made  use  of,  the  richest 
of  the  country,  and  the  most  precious  are  those  of  lambs  : 
some  of  them  are  small  frizzled  skins,  very  rich,  of  which 
the  most  beautiful  are  valued  as  high  as  fifteen  francs,  and 
are  taken  from  lambs  not  above  two  months  old  at  most." 

The  account  is  amusing,  but  has  no  relation,  I  think, 
to  this  passage  of  Solomon,  or  any  other  place  of  Holy 
Writ.  Lambs  were  the  clothing  of  Israel,  as  they  fur- 
nished them  with  wool,  to  be  manufactured  into  cloth  for 
their  wearing. 

OBSERVATION  XVI. 

SBVERITT  OF  THE  EASTERN  WINTERS,  FROST,   RAIN,  &C. 
COMMENT  ON  CANT.  II.   11,  12,  13. 

It  appears  therefore  that  one  part  of  the  winter  is  dis- 
tinguished from  the  rest  of  it  by  the  people  of  the  Levant, 
on  account  of  the  severity  of  the  cold,  and  which  we  may  - 
call  the  depth  of  their  winters. 

•  Vol.  i-  p.  102,  note.    Which   desoription   is  followed  by  an  instructive 
copperplate,  relating  to  dresses. 

t  P.  90.  i  See  Tosh.  vii.  21. 


IM  CONCERNING  T HK  WEATHER 

answers  fo  Russell's  account,  who  says,  the  most  deli- 
cate make  no  fires  till  the  end  of  November. 

How  long  they  continue  the  use  of  them  he  does  not 
say,  but  we  know,  from  other  hands,  that  they  continue 
to  use  them  In  Judea  far  info  the  spring  :*  Bp.  Pococke, 
set  outf  for  Jerusalem  on  the  17th  of  March  in  the  even- 
ing, and  was  conducted  by  an  Arab  guide  to  his  tent, 
which  was  two  or  three  miles  off;  there  he  was  treated 
with  bread  and  coffee,  he,  the  Arab's  wife,  and  some  eth- 
er people,  he  tells  us,  sitting  by  a  fire.  He  goes  further, 
for  he  says, J  that  in  the  night  of  the  8th  of  May  the 
Sheikh  of  Sephoury,  a  place  in  Galilee,  made  them  afire, 
in  a  ruined  little  building,  and  sent  them  boiled  milk, 
eggs,  and  coffee:  the  fire  therefore  was  not  designed  for 
the  preparing  their  food,  but  for  the  warming  them.  No 
wonder  then  that  the  people  who  went  to  Gethsemane,  to 
apprehend  our  Lord,  thought  a  fire  of  coals  a  considera- 
ble refreshment  at  the  time  of  the  Passover,^  which  must 
have  been  earlier  in  the  year  than  the  8th  of  May,  though 
it  might  be  considerably  later  than  the  17th  of  March. ^ 

It  may  not  be  amiss  to  add,  that  as  they  use  fires 
against  the  cold  of  their  winters,  they  also  use  furred  gar- 
ments very  frequently,  in  these  countries,  on  account  of 
the  cold,  which  is  a  circumstance  that,  I  believe,  must 
occasion  a  good  deal  of  surprise  to  many  of  my  readers. 

So  Dr.  Russell  informs  us,  that  the  vests  that  are  worn 
by  well  dressed  people,  in  the  spring  or  autumn,  are  not 

•  On  this  passage,  I  found  the  following  note  in  a  copy  of  this  work  in 
the  hand  xvriting'  of  the  late  Dr.  Russell  : 

Generally  in  March,  that  is,  the  Europeans.  The  people  of  the  coun- 
try seldom  longer  than  February  ,•  but  fires  are  occasionally  made  in  the 
met  seasons,  not  only  in  March,  but  in  ^pril  also ;  and  would  be  accepta- 
ble at  the  gardens  sometimes  even  in  May.  Edit. 

IVol.ii.  p.  5.  +P.  62.  f  John  xviii,  18. 

fl  Dr.  Russell,  IMS.  note,  says,  the  nights  in  that  season  are  often  very 
cold,  and  of  this,  people  are  rendered  more  sensible  by  the  heats  of  the 
day.  In  May,  June,  and  even  July,  travellers  very  often  put  on  furs  in  the 
evening.  Edit. 


IN  THE  HOLY  LAND. 


139 


unfrequenMy  lined  with  short  haired  furs,  as  sable,  ermin, 
squirrel,  Sec.  and  that  the  robe  which  constitutes  a  full 
dress  in  the  winter,  is  lined  with  long  haired  fur,  such  as 
is  taken  from  the  ounce,  foxes  of  different  kinds,  &c.* 
Some  of  them  also  sleep  in  winter  in  their  furs.f 

As  in  collecting  their  prey,  the  Israelites  were  wont  to 
gather  together  what  was  most  valuable  and  magnificent, J 
it  is  not  impossible  that  things  made  of  skins,  mentioned 
Numb.  xxxi.  20,  might  mean  such  kind  of  dresses;  but  I 
cannot  by  any  means  persuade  myself,  with  Sir  J.  Char- 
din  in  his  MS.  that  when  Solomon  says,  the  la7nbs  are  for 
thy  clothing,  Prov.  xxvii.  26,  he  had  any  reference  to 
those  furs  that  are  sometimes  taken  from  lambs  in  the 
East,  and  which  are  greatly  esteemed :  "  In  cold  countriesi 
says  that  writer,  furs  are  greatly  made  use  of,  the  richest 
of  the  country,  and  the  most  precious  are  those  of  lambs  : 
some  of  them  are  small  frizzled  skins,  very  rich,  of  which 
the  most  beautiful  are  valued  as  high  as  fifteen  francs,  and 
are  taken  from  lambs  not  above  two  months  old  at  most." 

The  account  is  amusing,  but  has  no  relation,  I  think, 
to  this  passage  of  Solomon,  or  any  other  place  of  Holy 
Writ.  Lambs  were  the  clothing  of  Israel,  as  they  fur- 
nished them  with  wool,  to  be  manufactured  into  cloth  for 
their  wearing. 

OBSERVATION  XVI. 

gBVERITY  OF  THE  EASTERN  WINTERS,  FROST,  RAIN,  &C. 
COMMENT  ON  CANT.  If.   11,  12,  13. 

It  appears  therefore  that  one  part  of  the  winter  is  dis- 
tinguished from  the  rest  of  it  by  the  people  of  the  Levant, 
on  account  of  the  severity  of  the  cold,  and  which  we  may  - 
call  the  depth  of  their  winters. 

•  Vol.  i.  p.  102,  note.    Which   desoriptJon   is  followed  by  an  instructive 
copperplate,  relating  to  dres»e». 

^  P.  90.  i  See  Josh.  vii.  21. 


140  CONCERNING  THE  WEATHER 

Frosts  in  Egypt,  according  to  Egmont  and  Heyman,* 
are  chiefly  between  the  seventh  and  fourteenth  of  Febru- 
ary, those  seven  days    constituting,   they  say,  the  whole 
winter  in  Egypt,  and    it  might  be  imagined  the    depth  of 
winter  elsewhere  is   at  the  same  time  ;  but  this  is  not  the 
account  of  Dr.  Russell,  for  he  tells  us  that  the  severity  of 
the  cold  begins  at   Aleppo  about   the  121h  of  December. 
It  seems   to  do  the  same  in  the  Holy  Land,  for  Albertus 
Aquensis  says,  that  Godfrey  of  Jerusalem,   after   having 
besieged  the  city  of  Assur  some  time,  upon  the  beginning 
of  the  severity  of  the  winter,  despaired  of  taking  it,  and 
returned  to  Jerusalem,  in  the  middle  of  the  month  of  De- 
cember.f     At  Aleppo  it  lasts  about  40  days,  and  is  call- 
ed by  the  natives  murbania.     I  do  not   know  how  long  it 
lasts  in  Judea.     St.  Jerom  I   find, J  speaks  of  February 
as  part  of  the  sharpest  time  of  winter,  but  whether  with 
the  accuracy  of  a  natural  philosopher,  may  be  much  ques- 
tioned, as  he  is  giving  a  mystical  turn   to   the  name  of  the 
month  in  that  place,  and   persons  of  that  complexion  are 
ordinarily  more  solicitous  to  complete  an  allegory,  than  to 
deliver  facts  with  precision.     However  it   appears,  that 
at  Aleppo  one  part  of  the  winter  is  distinguished  from  the 
rest  of  it  by  the  severity  of  the  cold,  and  has  among  the 
natives   a  distinct    name;  the    Gesfa    Dei    per   Francos 
speaks?  of  the   like  difference  in  Judea  ;  may  we  not  be- 
lieve it  had  a  distinct  name  among  the  Jews  too?  And  I 
would  propose    it   to   the    consideration  of  the    learned* 
whether  the  word  inon  hassetav,    which  is  used  Cant.  ii. 
11,  and  translated  there  winter,  may  not  be  understood  to 
mean  what  the  inhabitants  of  Aleppo  express  by  the  term 
murbania?  It  occurs  no  where  else  in  the  Old  Testament, 
and  another  word  is  used  for  the  rainy  part  of  the  year 
in  general. 

•  Vol.  ii.  p.  214,215. 

t  Gesta  Dei  per  Francos,  p.  295.  E6  qii6d  civitas  Assur,  hoc  tempore 
graviasimce  hyemis  incohante,  prse  frigore  et  nive  insupepabilis  haberetnr, 
Jerusalem  Decembri  mense  mediato  rediC. 

i  la  Com.  in  Zach.    E^t  in  acerrimo  tepipore  hyemis. 


*        IN  THE  HOLY  LAND.  14l 

If  this  Ihought  be  admitted,  it  will  greatly  illustrate 
the  words  of  the  Bridegroom,  Lo,  the  winter  is  passed^ 
the  rain  is  over  and  gone :  for  then  the  last  clause  will 
not  be  explanatory  of  the  first,  and  signify  that  the  moist 
part  of  the  year  was  entirely  past,  along  with  which.  Dr. 
Russell  assures  us,  all  pleasantness  withdraws  from  Alep- 
po; but  the  words  will  import,  llie  murbaniaispast  and 
over,  and  the  weather  become  agreeably  warm,  the  rain  too 
is  just  ceas^,  and  consequently  hath  left  us  the  prospect 
of  several  days  of  serenity  and  undisturbed  pleasantness, 
the  weather  of  Judea  in  this  respect  being,  I  presume, 
like  that  at  Algiers,  where,  after  two  or  three  days  of 
rain,  there  is  usually,  according  to  Dr.  Shaw,  a  week,  a 
fortnight,  or  more,  of  fair  and  good  weather.  Of  such  a 
sort  of  cessation  of  rain  alone  the  Bridegroom,  methinks, 
is  here  to  be  understood,  not  of  the  absolute  termination 
of  the  rainy  season,  and  the  summer's  drought  being  come 
on  :  and  if  so,  what  can  that  time  that  was  past  mean  but 
the  murbania  .^  .*?•;   : 

And  indeed  Dr.  Hussell,  in  giving  us  an  account  of  the 
excursions  of  the  English  merchants  at  Aleppo,  &c.  has 
undesignedly  furnished  us  with  a  good  comment  on  this 
and  the  two  following  verses.^  These  gentlemen,  it 
seems,  dine  abroad  under  a  tent  in  spring  and  autumn  on 
Saturdays  and  Wednesdays.  They  do  the  same  during 
the  good  weather  in  winter;  but  they  live  at  the  gardens 
in  April  and  part  of  May.  In  the  heat  of  summer  they 
dine  at  the  gardens,  instead  of  under  the  tent ;  that  is,  I 
suppose,  once  or  twice  a  week  they  dine  under  a  tent  in 
autumn  and  spring.  The  cold  weather  is  not  supposed 
by  Solomon  to  have  been  long  over,  since  it  is  distinctly 
mentioned,  and  the  inhabitants  of  Aleppo  make  their  ex- 
cursions very  early.  The  narcissus  flowers  during  the 
whole  of  the  murbania;  hyacinths  and  violets  at  latest  be- 
fore it  is  quite  over  ;f  the  appearing  of  flowers  then  does 
not  mean  the  appearing  of  the  first  and  earliest  flowers^ 

•  Vol.  i.  p.  49.    Vol.  ii.  p.  IT.  f  Vol.  i.  p.  70. 


llljlp  CONCERNING  THE  WEATHER 

but  mnst  rather  be  understood  of  the  earth's  being  cover- 
ed with  them,  which  &t  Aleppo  is  not  till  after  the  mid- 
dle of  February,  a  small  crane's  bill  appearing  on  the 
banks  of  the  river  there  about  the  middle  of  February, 
quickly  after  which  comes  a  profusion  of  flowers.  And 
in  another  place*  he  tells  us,  that  the  nightingales,  which 
are  there  in  abundance^ot  only  afford  much  pleasure  by 
their  songs  in  the  gardens,  but  are  also  kept  tame  in  the 
houses,  and  let  out  at  a  small  rate  to  divert  su«h  as  choose 
it  in  the  city,  so  that  no  entertainments  are  made  in 
the  spring  without  a  consort  of  these  birds  ;•(-  no  won- 
der then  that  Solomon  makes  the  Bridegroom  speak  of 
the  singing  of  birds,  and  it  teaches  us  what  these  birds  are, 
which  are  expressly  distinguished  from  turtle  doves. 

OBSERVATION  XVII. 

DATS    INTENSELY    HOT,    SUCCEEDED    DY    EXCESSIVELY 
COLD    NIGHTS. 

I  HAVE  in  the  preceding  Observations  shown,  that 
those  that  dwell  at  present  in  the  Holy  Land,  continue 
the  use  of  fires  to  warm  them,  far  on  in  the  year ;  I  would 
now  make  it  appear,  that  it  is  not  without  reason  that  they 
practise  this. 

In  the  1st  chapter,  I  produced  some  citations  from  Bp. 
Pococke's  Travels,  which  showed  that  an  Arab  had  a  fire 
in  the  tent,  in  which  he  was  entertained,  the  night  of  the 
17th  of  March;  and  that  a  fire  was  made  for  his  use  by 
one  of  the  Sheikhs  of  Galilee,  so  late  as  the  8th  of  May. 
This  may  appear  to  us  surprising,  but  it  is  confirmed  in 
part  by  Doubdan;  and  the  reason  of  it  is  clearly  explain- 
ed by  him,  as  to  the  whole  of  it. 

*  Vol.  ii.p.206u 

f  Thevcnot  going  to  Jordon,  April  16,  found  the  little  wood*  on  the 
banks  of  the  river,  filled  with  nightingales  in  full  song.  This,  sajs  Dr. 
Russell,  MS.  note,  is  rather  earlier  than  at  Aieppo  where  thej  ^o  not  eon>e 
tin  nearly  the  end  of  the  month.    Bbi  t. 


m  THE  HOLY  LAND.  143 

Doubdan  travelling  in  the  evening  of  the  281h  of  March, 
N.S.  from  Jaflfa,  or  Joppa,  to  Rama,  tells  us  he  passed 
near  two  or  three  companies  of  Arabs,  "  who  were  watch- 
ing their  flocks,  making  a  great  noise,  smging  and  rejoicing 
about  many  fires  which  they  had  made  in  the  plain,  and  a 
number  of  dogs,  who,  perceiving  our  being  near  to  them, 
did  not  cease  from  growling,  barking,  and  giving  us  appre- 
hension of  being  discovered,  and  falling  into  the  hands  of 
these  robbers."*  '■ 

Perhaps  it  may  be  thought  that  these  fires,  and  all  thi« 
noise,  might  be  made  to  intimidate  beasts  of  prey,  which 
they  might  be  apprehensive  were  about,  and  watching  an 
opportunity  of  making  depredations  on  their  flocks  ;  it  is 
possible  it  might  be  so.  The  warmth  however  of  these 
fires  must  have  been  comfortable  to  themselves,  who 
were  watching  in  the  open  air,  sinrce  Doubdan  complains 
of  his  lodging  that  night  at  Rama,  where  the  procurator 
of  the  Holy  Land  did  not  treat  them  with  the  greatest 
tenderness,  "but  contented  himself  with  putting  us  into 
a  miserable  room,  where  there  were  only  the  four  walls, 
giving  us  nothing  but  a  mat  to  lie  upon,  a  stone  for  a  pil- 
low, and  no  coverlid  but  the  broken  ceiling,  which  expos- 
ed us  to  the  weather,  which  was  not  the  most  favourable 
at  that  season,  as  the  nights  are  always  extremely  cool."f 
Yet  the  heat  of  the  preceding  day  was  so  great,  that  it 
was  assigned  as  one  reason  why  they  waited  some  houra 
at  Joppa,  io  a  poor  Greek  hovel,  before  they  set  out  for 
Rama.| 

But  the  account  he  gives  of  his  situation  at  Tyre,  is 
much  stronger  still.  On  the  16th  of  May  they  found  the 
heat  near  Tyre  so  great,  that  though  it  seems  they  took 
their  repast  on  the  grass,  under  a  large  tree,  by  the  side 
of  a  small  river,§  yet  he  complains  of  their  being  burnt  up 
alive,  and  they  were  obliged  to  continue  in  that  situation 
until  six  or  seven  in  the  afternoon,  when  they  returned  to 

•  Voy.  de  la  Terre  Saiate,  p.  42. 
tl*.  «•  *!'.  4».  $P.  S.31. 


144  GONCERNIJfG  TH  E  WEATHER 

their  bark ;  but  the  wind  failing,  and  the  seamen  not  to 
be  persuaded  to  row,  they  could  get  no  further  than  the 
rocks  and  ruins  of  Tyre,  when  night  overtook  them.* 
Near  those  ruins  they  were  obliged  to  pass  a  considera- 
ble part  of  the  night,  not  without  suffering  greafly  from 
the  cold,  which  was  as  violent  and  sharp  as  the  heat  of 
the  day  had  been  burning.  He  goes  on,  "  I  am  sure  I 
shook  as  in  the  deplh  of  winter,  more  than  two  or  three 
full  hours ;"  to  which  he  adds,  their  being  quite  wetted  with 
a  rime  extremely  thick  and  cold,  which  fell  upon  them 
all  night.  To  this  he  subjoins,!  that  the  worst  was,  that 
they  were  in  the  hands  of  four  or  five  fishermen,  who  did 
nothing  but  throw  their  nets  into  the  sea,  often  with  no 
success,  in  the  meanwhile  roasting  us  in  the  day  time  in  the 
sun,  and  almost  making  us  to  perish  with  cold  in  the 
night,  without  at  all  getting  forward. 

This  was  at  Tyre,  which,  if  not  to  be  reckoned  in  the 
limits  of  the  Holy  Land,  is  but  just  out  of  them  ;J  and  was 
in  the  night  between  the  16th  and  I7th  of  May.  A  fire 
in  the?  night  then,  in  the  middle  of  May,  might  be  very 
requisite,  and  highly  acceptable.  The  complaint  made 
by  Jacob,  relating  to  Mesopotamia,  being  equally  applica- 
ble to  the  Holy  Land :  In  the  day  the  drought  consumed 
me,  and  the  frost  by  night. ^ 

The  very  different  managements,  occasioned  by  the 
great  difference  in  the  temperature  of  the  air  in  the  day 
and  in  the  night  season,  may  occasion  some  perplexity  in 
the  minds  of  common  readers  undoubtedly,  since  it  has 
done  so  in  the  thoughts  of  some  of  the  learned,  and  is 
therefore  a  circumstance  that  ought  to  be  well  fixed  in  the 
memory. 

Thus  Mr.  Biddulph,  chaplain  to  the  English  factory  at 
Aleppo,  expresses  his  surprise  at  finding  the  weather  so 
warm  at  Jerusalem,  at  that  same  time  of  the  year  that  he 
was  there,  when  those  that  had  been  out  in  the  night  to 

•  P.  532.  t  P-  540,  and  541.  *  See  Josh.  xix.  22. 

§  Gen.  xxxi.  40. 


seize  our  Lord,  wanted  a  fire.     "  We   being  there  at  the' 
same  season  of  the  year,  found  it  exceeding  hot,  and  hot- 
ter than  it  is  usually  at  Midsummer  in  England.     It  seem- 
ed strange  to  me,  how  it  should  then  be  so  cold  that  Peler 
should  creep  to  the  fire,  and  now,  at  the  same  season,  so  ' 
hot  that  we  could  no(  endure  the  heat  of  the  sun  ;  but  af-''*- 
ter  we  had  been  there  a  few  days,  the  very  place  resolved- 
the  doubt."* 

The  extinction  then  of  fires  in  the  month  Schabath, 
mentioned  in  a  preceding  article,  is  to  be  understood  only  *• 
to  relate  to  the  day  time,  not  to  those  that  sit  up  all  night,  *' 
or  far  into  the  night,  they  may  in  that  country  itself  want 
a  fire  in  the  middle  of  May,  while,  in  common,  fires  may 
be  left  off  by  the  end  of  February,  it  growing  warm  in  the 
day  time  by  the  end  of  that  month,  generally  speaking, 
but  the  nights  being  very  cold,  at  least  in  some  places  in  '-^ 
or  near  the  Holy  Land,  for  some  months  after. 

OBSERVATION  XVIII. 

EASTERN     SPRINGS     MUCH     EARLIER     THAN     THOSE     IN 
THE    WEST. 

It  appears  also,  from  a  circumstance  mentioned  by  San- 
dys, that  severe  as  the  winters  about  Jerusalem  sometimes 
are,  yet  it  is  certainly  true  that  they  are  forwarder  there 
than  we  are  in  England,  about  two  months  in  the  spring. 
For  Sandys,  it  seems,  found  roses  growing  wild,  and  in 
plenty,  in  the  close  of  March,  O.S.f  as  he  was  travelling 
in  that  part  of  Judea,  where  it  is  supposed  John  the  Bap- 
tist lived,  not  far  from  Jerusalem;  whereas,  June  is  the 
common  time  with  us  for  the  blossoming  of  the  rose,  and 

•  For  he  foand  it  cold,  by  experience,  when  he  slept  in  the  fields  all 
night.  Collect,  of  Voy.  and  Trav.  from  the  Library  of  the  Earl  of  Oxf»rd, 
p.  S21,  vol.  i.  ;       ^  , 

f  Two  or  three  days,  it  should  seem,  before  the  month  ended,  and  con- 
sequently about  the  8ih  of  April,  N-S.  he  mentions  his  passing  "through 
rallies,  of  their  roses  voluntarily  plentiful" 

VOL.  I.  19 


144^  CONCERNING  THE  WEATHER 

particularly  of  those  that  grow  wild  in  our  hedges,  which 
come  into  flower  about  the  same  time  those  species  do 
that  are  cultivated  in  our  gardens. 

What  is  nearly  a  confirmation  of  this,  may  be  found  in 
Doubdan's  Journey  to  the  Holy  Land  ;  for,  speaking  of 
his  coming  out  of  the  church  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre,  at 
Jerusalem,  on  the  21st  of  April,  N.S.  or  10th,  O.S.  he  says, 
*'  Many  Turks  and  Moors  were  in  the  court  yard,  of 
whom  some  presented  them  with  nosegays  of  small  flow- 
ers, others  with  roses  fresh  gathered ;  others  who  had 
bottles  of  rosewater,  sprinkled  their  faces  and  clothes 
with  it :  all  to  get  some  maidins  from  them."^  These 
roses  continued  to  blow  in  such  plenty  in  April,  that  he 
tells  us,  that  on  the  28th  of  that  month,  when  the  eastern 
christians  made  one  of  their  processions  in  that  church, 
which  lasted  at  least  two  hours,  many  men  attended  it 
with  sacks  full  of  leaves  of  roses,  which  they  threw  by 
great  handsful  on  the  people,  and  indeed  in  such  prodig- 
ious quantities,  as  that  many  were  quite  covered  with 
them,  and  the  pavement  all  strewed  over.  There  were 
also  others  with  bottles  of  rosewater,  which  they  threw 
every  where  upon  people's  faces  and  clothes,  with  inex- 
pressible rejoicing. f 

It  may  be  remarked,  that  as  roses  were  so  extremely 
plentiful,  they  could  not  be  the  earliest  of  that  country, 
but  had  been  some  time  in  blossom.  Accordingly,  he  ob- 
serves, that  on  the  15th  of  April  he  found  in  an  old  nun- 
nery at  Jerusalem,  now  converted  into  a  mosque,  a  num- 
ber of  small  odoriferous  shrubs,  such  as  rosemary,  rose- 
bushes, laurels,  jasmines,  and  other  flowers  extremely 
pleasant. J  This  implies  that  the  rosebushes  were  in 
flower,  and  also  the  jasmine,  which,  though  its  flowers  are 
contemporary  with  roses,  yet  does  not,  I  think,  begin  to 
blossom  quite  so  soon  as  the  rosebush. 

So  then  both  the  rosebush  and  the  jasmine  furnish  ad- 
ditional proofs,  that  at  Jerusalem  they  are  six  weeks  or 
two  months  earlier,  as  to  the  spring,  than  we  are. 

»  P.  2S4.  t  P*  351.  t  P.  225. 


IN  THE  HOLY  LAND.  14f 

May  we  suppose,  that  as  roseleaves  now  are  the  things 
that  are  made  use  of,  to  strew  the  pavement  about  the  sepul- 
chre of  our  Lord,  they  were  used  in  that  procession  that 
almost  immediately  preceded  his  death,  of  which  the  evan- 
gelists have  given  an  account,  particularly  St.  Mark  and 
St.  Matthew  ?  Many  spread  their  garments  in  the  way: 
and  others  cut  down  branches  off  the  trees,  and  strawed^ 
them,  in  the  rvay.^  If  rosebushes  grew  there,  on  Mount 
Olivet,  they  might  very  naturally  cut  off  branches  full 
of  roses,  and  shaking  them,  strew  the  palh  of  our  Lord 
with  the  beautiful,  but  untenacious  leaves  of  those 
flowers.  The  word  them,  in  our  version,  which  seems 
to  refer  to  the  branches  themselves,  it  is  to  be  remember- 
ed, is  not  in  the  original,  but  a  supplement  of  our  trans- 
lators. 

OBSERVATION  XIX. 

TIOLENT    INUNDATIONS    rREQ.UENT    IN    THE    EAST. 

One  of  the  particulars  of  Jacobus  de  Vitriaco's  de- 
scription of  the  weather  of  the  Holy  Land,  which  ap- 
pears under  the  first  of  these  Observations  is,  that  though 
the  returns  of  rain  in  the  winter  are  not  extremely  fre- 
quent, yet  that  when  it  does  rain,  the  water  is  wont  to 
pour  down  with  great  violence  three  or  four  days  and 
nights  together,  enough  to  drown  the  whole  country. f 

Such  violent  rains,  in  an  hilly  country  especially,  as 
Judea  is  known  to  be,  must  occasion  inundations  very 
dangerous  to  buildings  that  happen  to  be  placed  within 
their  reach,  by  washing  away  the  soil  from  under  them, 
and  occasioning  their  fall  j  to  some  such  events  our  Lord 
must  certainly  be  understood  to  refer,  in  Luke  vi.  48.  J 

•  Mark  xi.  8.  Matth.  xxi.  8.  f  Vide  GesU  Dei,  p.  1098. 

i:  The  Tiolent   rains,  says  Dr.  Rugsell,  MS.  note,  often  wash  down  sto7ie 
■walla  at  Aleppo  ;  and   a  remarkable  instance  happened  in  the  Castravnn 
Mountains,  A.D.  of  a  hamlet  with  fig  garden,  &c.  being  removed  snddoni} 
to  a  great  distance.    Edit. 


148  CONCERNING  THE  WEATHER 

The  time  that  those  that  have  published  their  travels 
into  lliis  country  have  stayed  in  it,  has  been  so  short,  and 
fheir'opportunities  for  observing  so  limited,  that  it  is  no 
wonder  we  meet  with  no  accounts  of  such  inundations  in 
their  writings;  but  we  may  easily  learn,  from  what  has 
fallen  out  in  other  countries,  what  must  have  happened  in 
this,  especially  in  those  times  in  which  it  was  fully  inhab- 
ited, when  the  houses  must  have  been  frequently  built  in 
places  not  so  well  chosen,  as  well  as  in  those  that  were 
more  commodious.  , 

An  account  of  an  inundation  from  a  violent  shower  of 
rain  in  Yorkshire,  published  in  the  sixth  volume  of  the 
Abridgment  of  the  Philosophical  Transactions,*  may 
readily  be  believed  to  give  a  very  true  account  of  what 
must  have  happened,  from  time  to  time  in  Judea.  A 
beck,  it  seems,  in  that  hilly  country,  was  suddenly  raised 
two  yards  at  least,  in  a  perpendicular  height,  above  what 
was  usual.  Several  houses,  mills,  and  bridges,  were 
thrown  down,  and  several  people  drowned.  Seven  out 
of  eight  in  one  house  were  cither  slain  by  the  fall  of  it,  or 
drowned.  The  rapldness  of  the  torrent  was  so  violent, 
that  it  took  down  the  side  of  a  chapel,  tore  up  the  dead 
out  of  their  graves,  and  swept  away  all  the  corn  land,  as 
deep  as  the  plough  had  gone.f  Thus  we  find  that  the 
fall  of  a  house  by  the  beating  of  the  stream  against  if,  men- 
tioned in  the  sixth  of  Luke,  when  floods  were  up,  occa- 
sioned by  rain, J  is  strongly  illustrated  by  what  happened 
in  our  own  country,  as  related  in  these  Transactions. 

To  this  may  be  added,  that  Maundrell  actually  saw  the 
tracts  of  several  torrents,  down  the  side  of  the  hills  of  the 
Holy  Land.§  He  also  describes  that  country  as  extreme- 
ly rocky,  but  covered  frequently  with  a  thin  coat  of 
earth  :f|  circumstances  which  complete  the  illustration  of 

*  Second  part,  pp.  58,  59. 
•)-  See  the  preceding  r.ote  from  Dr.  llnssell.  Edit. 

*  Sec  Matt   \ii.  25—27.  §  P.  57.  T  P.  C5. 


IN  THE  HOLY  LAND.  149 

this  allusion  of  our  Lord,  and  teach  us  how  to  understand 
building  on  the  sand,  or  loose  soil ;  and  the  wise  man's 
digging  down  to  the  rock,  before  he  laid  the  foundation  of 
his  building. 

Other  writers*  have  taken  nptlce  of  the  rockiness  of 
this  country,  and  of  its  being  frequently  covered  with  a 
shallow  coat  of  earth. 

It  is  more  than  possible  our  Lord  might  have  some  viK 
lage  in  view,  when  he  spoke  these  words,  which  was  known 
to  have  suffered  a  calamity  of  this  kind  :  but  if  not,  such 
events  were  too  frequent  among  them,  we  may  believe, 
not  to  make  them  feel  great  energy  in  his  words. 

The  account  Sir  John  Chardin  gives  of  these  countries 
in  a  note  in  one  of  his  manuscripts  on  Luke  vii.  48,  con- 
firms what  has  been  said  above  with  great  energy ;  there 
he  tells  us,  that  floods  are  uncommon  in  the  East,  there 
being  few  rivers,  but  that  there  are  great  inundations  here 
and  there,  for  want  of  channels  to  receive  the  water. 

OBSERVATION  XX. 

TIME    OP    THE    EARLY    AND    LATTER    RAIWS. 

Where  the  rain  falls  indiscriminately  through  the 
whole  year,  as  it  does  with  us,  there  is  no  notion  of  former 
and  latter  rains  ;  but  nothing  is  more  natural  than  tJiis 
distinction  in  such  a  country  as  Palestine. 

The  summer's  drought  at  Aleppo  usually  terminates, 
according  to  Dr.  Russell,  in  September,  by  some  heavy 
showers,  which  continue  sometimes,  as  appears,  by  his 
more  particular  description  of  (he  weather,  some  days ; 
after  which,  there  is  an  interval  of  fine  weather  of  between 
twenty  and  thirty  days,  when  showers  again  fall,  which 
he  calls  the  second  rains.  It  is  natural  to  suppose  those 
first  showers  should  be  called  the  former  rain,  and  accord- 
ingly all  sorts  of  authors    concur  in  tl-is,  the  Targumists 

*  Egmont  and  Ucynian,  Vol.  i.  p.  388,  fccc. 


150  CONCERNING  THE  WEA.THER 

ancientlj,  the  later  Talmudical  doctors,  and  Christian 
writers.  Lightfoot,  however,  it  seems,*  has  found  out  one 
Rabbi,  who  supposes  the  rain  of  the  spring  is  the  former 
rain,  and  the  autumnal  the  latter  rain,  and  he  himself  ex- 
presses great  uncertainty  about  it  in  that  passage ;  and  in 
another  tractf  he  directly  affirms  that  the  Feast  of  Tab- 
ernacles was  about  the  time  of  the  latter  rains.  Lightfoot 
cites  Joel  ii.  23,  in  support  of  this  opinion,  than  which 
nothing  could  be  more  inconclusive,  as  it  is  well  known 
that  the  month  next  after  the  vernal  equinox  is  as  often, 
at  least,  called  in  the  Scriptures  the  first  months  as  that 
next  after  the  autumnal.  I  shall  have  occasion  to  show, 
in  a  few  lines,  that  this  same  passage  of  Joel  is  very  un- 
happily cited  by  an  author,;{l  much  more  accurate  in  these 
matters  than  Lightfoot.  It  is,  however,  less  to  be  won- 
dered at  that  Lightfoot  should  look  upon  the  rains  of  au- 
tumn as  the  latter  rain,  since  he  supposed,  as  I  have  else- 
where remarked,  that  it  rained  in  Judea  only  at  the  equi- 
noxes ;  and  consequently,  about  as  many  months  of  drought 
preceded  the  spring  rains,  according  to  him,  as  those  of 
autumn.  He  wanted,  therefore,  an  important  datum  to 
determine  this  point.  But  as  this  is  certainly  a  mistake, 
and  all  the  winter  is  more  or  less  wet,  the  rains  of  autumn 
must  be  those  that  are  called  the  former  rain,  being  the 
first  that  come  after  a  long  suspension  of  showers. 

The  time  when  these  first  rains  fall  in  Judea  is  the  next 
thing  to  be  considered.  At  Aleppo  it  is  usually  between 
the  15th  and  25th  of  September,  O.  S.  It  is  later  in  Ju- 
dea, according  to  Dr.  Shaw,  who  must  have  ascertained 
this  point  by  inquiring  of  the  inhabitants  of  that  country 
about  it,  since  there  is  no  Scripture  from  whence  he  at- 
tempts to  deduce  it,  as  he  does  the  time  of  the  latter  rain, 
though  very  untowardly  :  the  beginning  of  November,  ac- 
cording to  him,$  is  the  time  of  the  first  descent  of  rain  in 
the  Holy  Land. 

*  Vol.  ii.  p.  400.  t  Vol.  i.  p.  978,  t  Dr.  Shaw. 

§  P.  S35. 


IN  THE  HOLY  LANp.  l5l 

The  seasons  are  exceedingly  regular  in  the  East,  as 
Dr.  Russell  observes,  but  it  is  not  to  be  imagined  that  the 
rains  of  autumn  come  to  a  day  :  he  tells  us,  on  the  con- 
trary, that  sometimes  all  September,  in  which  month  the 
first  rains  usually  fall  at  Aleppo,  is  dry  and  sultry.  Dr. 
Shaw  in  like  manner  informs  us,  that  the  first  rains  of 
Barbary  fall,  in  some  years,  in  September  5  in  others,  a 
month  later.  The  accounts  of  these  gentlemen  are  much 
more  credible  than  those  of  the  Jewish  doctors  cited  by 
Lightfoot,*  who  represent  the  first  rains  as  falling  on  the 
17th  day  of  the  month  Marheshvan,  the  second  rains  on 
the  23d,  and  the  third  in  the  beginning  of  the  month  Chis- 
leu  ;  and  of  those  Rabbles  mentioned  by  him  elsewhere,f 
of  whom  one  affirmed,  the  first  rain  began  on  the  3d  of 
Marheshvan,  the  middle  rain  on  the  7tb,  the  last  on  the 
17th  ;  and  the  other,  that  they  fell  out  on  the  7th,  the 
17th,  and  the  21st  of  that  month.  No  wonder  they  dif- 
fer in  their  accounts,  since  this  precision  must  be  imag- 
inary. 

These  Rabbies  are  the  only  writers  I  ever  observed, 
who  speak  of  the  third  rains ;  but  Dr.  Russell  mentions 
the  first  and  the  second  so  currently,  that  one  would  im- 
agine it  an  ancient  distinction;  and  it  is  natural  to  pause 
and  consider,  whether  these  are  the  former  and  latter 
rains  so  often  mentioned  in  the  Scriptures.  ''■■' 

It  is  certain  the  former  and  latter  rains  have  not  com- 
monly been  so  understood  ;  nor  were  they  so  by  St.  Jer. 
om,  who  lived  long  in  that  country.  On  the  other  hand, 
they  that  have  written  concerning  the  natural  history  of 
these  countries,  make  no  particular  distinction  betwixt  any 
rains  but  these,  the  rest  falling  undistinguished  in  the  winter 
months,  without  any  thing  of  order,  or  remarkableness,  so 
far  as  I  have  been  able  to  make  out. 

In  order  to  settle  this  point,  it  may  be  proper  io  ob- 
serve, that  rain  in  the  spring  is  represented  as  of  great  ad- 
vantage.    "The  more    wet  the  spring,"  says  Russell' 


1S2  eONCERNING  THE  WEATHER 

"  the  lafer  Jhe  harvest,  and  the  more  plentiful  the  crop  j" 
and  in  Barbary  it  may  be  even  necessary.  The  words  of 
Dr.  Shaw  seem  to  me  to  imply  this,  "  If  the  latter  rains 
fall  as  usual,  in  the  middle  of  April ;  the  crop  is  reckoned 
secure :"  for  is  not  this  in  other  terms  saying,  they  think 
it  in  danger,  if  they  have  not  these  late  rains?  The  late 
rains,  then,  are  of  great  consequence,  as  iveli  as  the  au- 
tumnal, and,  consequently,  might  be  represented,  Prov. 
xvi.  15,  as  extremely  precious.*  To  this  it  is  to  be  add- 
ed, that  the  words  translated  the  former  and  latter  raiiis, 
are  not  words  expressive  of  first  and  second,  or  such 
words  as  are  used  Dan.  xi.  29,  to  express  the  former  and 
the  latter  coming  of  the  king  of  Syria  against  the  king  of 
Egypt:  they  do  not,  then,  appear  to  be  equivalent  to  first 
and  second  rains,  but  to  mark  out  two  important  sorts  of 
rain,  and  as  the  spring  rains  are  undoubtedly  of  great  con- 
sequence to  make  a  plentiful  harvest,  and  the  latter  rains 
have  been  almost  universally  understood  to  mean  them,  it 
seems  requisite  to  acquiesce  in  that  interpretation. 

Aq  argument,  however,  that  is  commonly  made  use  of 
in  proof  that  the  latter  rain  means  that  of  the  spring,  and 
which  may  appear  to  many  to  be  decisive,  is  of  no  validi- 
ty at  all :  I  mean  the  words  of  the  prophet  Joel,  He  will 
cause  to  come  down  for  yon  the  rain,  the  former  rain, 
and  the  latter  rain  in  the  first  month,  ch.  ii.  23,  for  this 
passage  is  no  ways  to  the  purpose,  if  the  translation  of 
the  Seventy  be  admitted,  who  instead  of  rendering  the 
words  the  former  rain  and  the  latter  rain  in  the  first  month, 
suppose  the  words  signify  he  will  rain  upon  you  the  former 
and  the  latter  rain  as  aforetime,  as  at  first.  St.  Jerom 
understands  the  passage  in  the  same  sense,  though  he  be. 
lieved  the  latter  rains  were  those  of  the  spring.  Nor  is 
the  word  month  in  the  original. 

•  The  early  and  latter  rain  jyip'?^^  n^V  Yoreh  u  malkosh,  is  mentioned 
Deut.  xi.  14,  and  Hos.  vi.  3.  The  •v/ or  A  yoreh  may  signify  the  rain  which 
falls  ia  Judea  about  the  middle  of  October,  their  seed  time;  and  malkosh, 
that  which  falls  about  the  middle  of  April,  a  little  before  their  harvest. 


IN  THE  HOLY  LAND.  153 

Nevertheless,  our  version  has  had  that  effect  upon  the 
very  ingenious  Dr.  Shaw,  that  having  spoken*  of  the  fall- 
ing rains  in  Barbary  in  the  middle  of  April,  he  says,  "In 
the  Holy  Land  we  find  they  were  a  month  sooner,"  and 
immediately  cites  Joel  ii.  23,  in  confirmation  of  it.  This 
is  a  strange  slip  in  the  Doctor.  In  the  first  place,  there  is 
no  dependence  on  this  te^t  at  all,  the  Septuagint  and  St. 
Jerom  understand  it  otherwise,  and  he  himself  elsewheref* 
affirms  they  fall  sometimes  in  the  middle,  sometimes  to- 
ward the  latter  end  of  April.  And  secondly,  admitting 
our  translation,  it  does  not  follow  that  the  rains  of  Barba- 
ry hold  longer  than  those  of  the  Holy  Land,  since  the 
middle  of  April  falls  almost  perpetually  within  the  Jew- 
ish month  Abib  or  Nisan,  even  without  those  extraordi- 
nary intercalations  the  Doctor  speaks  of,  andj  with  them 
must  do  it  always.  That  the  rains  there  do  hold  till  af- 
ter the  middle  of  April  at  least,  appears  from  Thevenot, 
who  speaks  of  rain  on  the  16th  of  April,  and  says,  the 
morning  of  the  17th  was  very  wet,  as  he  journeyed  from 
Jordan  to  Jerusalem. 

Scriptures  of  this  sort  are  therefore  to  be  explained  by 
facts  ;  and  it  is  very  wrong  when  on  the  contrary  we  pre- 
tend to  determine  facts  by  our  conjectural  interpretations 
of  Scripture.  Mr.  Lowth  agrees  with  the  substance  of 
this  observation,  but  we  have  reason  to  think  he  is  not 
perfectly  accurate  ;  when  he  supposes^  the  former  rain 
came  just  after  sowing  time,  to  make  the  seed  take  root, 
as  the  latter  rain  did  just  before  harvest,  to  plump  and 
fill  the  ears.  The  Arabs  of  Barbary*  breaking  up  their 
grounds  after^  the  first  rains  in  order  to  sow  wheat,  and  the 
sowing  barley  and  planting  lentils,  is  a  fortnight,  three 
weeks,  and  sometimes  more  than  a  month  later;  and  the 
first  rains  falling  at  Aleppo  in  the  middle  of  September, 
whereas  their  ploughing  does  not  begin  until  the  latter 
end  of  that  month. 

•  P.  137.  t  P-  335.  i  Ibid. 

§  In  his  Com.  on  Jcr.  vi,  24.  fT  Shaw,  p.  isr. 

VOL.  I.  20 


134  CONCERNING  THE  WEATHER 

OBSERVATION  XXI. 

TIME    OF    HARVEST,     AND     NECESSITV    OF    THE    LATTEB 
RAINS    TO    BRING    IT    TO    MATURITY. 

St.  Jerom's  explanation  of  Amos  iv.  7,  8,  is  to  be 
added,  I  am  afraid,  to  the  foregoing  instances  of  mistake 
which  I  have  mentioned.  Also  I  have  w'dhholden  the 
rain  from  you,  when  there  were  yet  three  months  to  the 
harvest,  and  I  caused  it  to  rain  upon  one  city,  and  caus- 
ed it  not  to  rain  upon  another  city  ;  one  piece  was  rain- 
ed upon,  and  the  piece  whereupon  it  rained  not,  withered. 
So  two  or  three  cities  wandered  unto  one  city  to  drink 
water,  but  they  were  not  satisfied.  Sec,  That  is,  accord- 
ing to  Jerom,  God  withheld  the  rain  commonly  called  the 
latter  rain,  which  is  extremely  necessary  to  the  thirsty 
fields  of  Palestine,  for  the  corn  when  it  begins  to  be  ready 
to  disclose  the  ear,  lest  it  should  wither;  he  withheld  the 
rain  of  the  latter  end  of  April,  from  which  to  wheat  har- 
vest there  are  three  months.  May,  June,  and  July. 

I  allow  the  rains  of  April  were  of  consequence  to  the 
corn.  "  If  the  latter  rains  fall  in  the  middle  of  April,  the 
crop  is  reckoned  secure,"  says  Shaw ;  but  the  Prophet 
has  before,  in  the  6th  v.  taken  notice  of  the  failing  of 
corn,  these  verses  then  apparently  refer  to  the  withhold- 
ing those  rains  that  filled  their  reservoirs  of  water  for 
drinking,  and  our  translators  should  have  used  the  term 
dried  up,  I  presume,  or  something  of  that  sort,  instead  of 
withered.*  Jerom  mistook  the  case,  then,  in  this  ex- 
planation. Nor  can  I  easily  believe  that  their  wheat  har- 
vest was  delayed  to  the  close  of  July;  at  present,  at 
Aleppo,  barley  harvest  commences  about  the  beginning 
of  May  ;  and  the  wheat,  as  well  as  that,  is  generally  over 
by  the  20th. f     In  Barbary  it  comes  at  the  latter  end  of 

*  As  they  did  in  translating  the  same  word,  Job  xiv.  11, 1  Kings  xvii.  7,  Sec. 

f  Russell,    vol.  i.  p.  74.    On  this  place   Dr.  Russell  remarks  in  a  MS- 
iiote,  tiiat  the  harvest  in  Jadea  is  earlier  than  at  Aleppo.  Edit. 


IN  THE  HOLY  LAND.     ,  1^5 

May,  or  beginning  of  June,  according  to  the  qualify  of 
the  preceding  seasons.*  Agreeably  to  this,  Raimond  de 
Agilesf  informs  us,  that  a  great  part  of  their  harvest  at 
Ramula  was  gathered  in  before  the  €(h  of  June  in  the 
year  1099,  for  on  that  day,  he  and  the  Christian  army  ar- 
rived before  Jerusalem,  having  passed  through  Ramula 
in  their  way,  where  they  found  most  of  their  harvest  over. 
This  father  talks  of  a  case  quite  different  from  what  the 
Prophet  refers  to ;  and  I  am  afraid  contradicts  facts  be" 
sides,  in  his  explanation. 

It  is  somewhat  hard,  I  acknowledge,  not  to  admit  the 
authority  of  St.  Jerom,  who  lived  so  long  in  those  coun- 
tries, as  to  the  time  of  harvest;  but  he  himself  in  this 
\ery  passage,  gives  us  the  liberty  of  supposing  great  men 
may  be  guilty  of  oscitancy  in  matters  of  this  sort,  for  he 
tells  us,  the  translators  of  the  Septuagint,  who  were  as 
well  acquainted  with  these  countries,  we  may  believe,  as 
he,  put  the  vintage  here  in  their  version,  instead  of  harvesty 
which,  he  says,  if  admitted,  would  suppose  such  a  state  of 
things  as  is  unwonted,  yea,  impossible,  in  the  countries  of 
the  East ;  for  never  have  we  seen  rain  in  these  Provinces, 
continues  he«  and  especially  in  Judea,  in  the  end  of  June, 
or  in  the  month  of  July ;  and  to  no  purpose  would  God 
threaten  drought  in  a  season  in  which  he  had  never  given 

He  goes  on,  and  says  that  God  suspended  the  rain,  not 
only  to  punish  them  with  want  of  bread,  but  with  thirst, 
for  that  in  those  countries,  in  which  he  then  resided,  ex- 
cepting a  few  fountains,  they  had  only  cistern  water,  so 
that  if  the  divine  anger  suspended  the  rains,  there  was 
more  danger  of  perishing  by  thirst  than  hyfamine.1[.  This 

•  Shaw,  p.  137.  t  GestaDei  per  Francos,  p.  173. 

+  Prohibui  a  vobis  imbrem,  qiium  adhuc  Eiiperessent  ties  menses  usque 
ad  niessera,  qux  appcllatur  pluvia  aerotina  ;  et  agris  Palsstina:  arvisqiie 
sitientilius  vel  maxim^  necessaria  est :  ut  quantlo  herba  turgcret  in  messeni, 
et  trilicum  partnriret,  riimia  siccitate  arescerct.  Significat  autem  vernum 
tempus  extrcmi  mcnsis  Aprilis,  a  qtio  usque  ad  messem  frumenti  trcs 
.•ncnsosupcisunt :  Maius,  Jtiniu"",  .Tultu't.  Pi-oTXp  id   «st,  messc,  Scptua- 


156  CONCEKNING  THE  WEATHER 

is  coming  to  the  point,  and  is  the  thing  to  which  alone  the 
Prophet  refers  in  these  two  verses,  and  might  have  clear- 
led  the  whole.  The  Prophet,  it  is  allowed  by  St.  Jerom 
himself,  does  speak  of  the  filling  the  cisterns  of  that 
country  with  water,  and  when  is  that  usually  done?  If  ihe 
authority  of  Dr.  Sha^  may  be  admitted,  it  is  in  the  month 
of  February.  "  It  is  an  observation,"  says  the  Doctor, 
"  at  or  near  Jerusalem,  that  provided  a  moderate  quantity 
of  snow  falls  in  the  beginning  of  February,  whereby  the 
fountains  are  made  to  overflow  a  little  afJerward,  there  is 
the  prospect  of  a  fruitful  and  plentiful  year :  the  inhabit- 
ants making,  upon  these  occasions,  the  like  rejoicings 
with  the  Egyptians  upon  the  cutting  of  the  Nile,"  p.  335. 
They  are  the  snow  and  the  rains  then  of  the  beginning  of 
February  that  fill  their  reservoirs  of  water,  and  make  them 
overflow ;  these  are  particularly  remarked,  and  their  de- 
scent occasions  great  rejoicings ;  and  February  is  just 
three  months  before  the  harvest  begins  at  Aleppo.  I 
most  think  therefore  that  the  expostulation  of  God,  by- 
Amos,  must  refer  to  his  withholding  the  rains  of  February, 
not  of  the  latter  end  of  April;  and  as  St  Jerom  has  cor- 
rected the  Septuagint,  we  may  venture  to  correct  St. 
Jerom.  The  interpretation  of  the  Septuagint  implies  the 
frequency  of  rain  in  June  or  July,  contrary  to  fact ;  St. 
Jerom's  that  harvest  did  not  come  on  till  the  end  of  July, 
which  equally  contradicts  experience  and  Scripture;  and 
what  adds  to  the  strangeness  of  the  mistake  is,  that  Jer- 
om applies  chiefly  to  the  harvest,  what  apparently  refers 
solely  to  the  filling  their  reservoirs  of  water,  and  under- 

ginta  suo  more  T^uy>ircv,  iA  est,  vindemiam  transtulerunt  :  quod  si  recipi- 
inus,  omnino  juxta  orientis  omnes  regioncs  et  insolitum  et  impossibile  est. 
Nunquam  enim  in  fine  mensis  Junii,  sive  in  mense  Julio,  in  his  provinciis, 
maximeque  in  Judxa,  pluvias  vidimus — Et  superfluum  erat  nunc  coramina- 
ri  mensis  Julii  siccitatem,  in  quonumquam  pluvias  dederat.  Prohibuit  au- 
tem  imbrem  ut  non  solum  indigentiam  panum,  sed  et  sitis  ardorem  et  bi. 
bendi  penuriam  sustinerent.  lu  his  enim  locis,  in  quibus  nunc  degimus, 
prieter  parvos  fontes,  omnes  cisternarum  aquse  sunt;  et  si  imbres  divina 
ira  suspenderit,  majus  sitis  quam  famis  periculum  est.  Hieron.  Opera, 
vol.  iii.  col,  1400.  Edit.  Martinay. 


T."        IN  THE  HOLY  LAND.  J5f 

stands  the  rains  of  the  Prophet  of  those  that  have  noth- 
ing to  do  with  filling  their  cisterns,  though  those  rains  of 
the  Prophet  must  have  been  as  celebrated  as  those  of 
April,  and  probablj  more'so,  for  however  useful  the  rains 
of  April  may  be,  it  is  from  those  of  Fehruary  that  they 
derive  their  hopes  of  a  fruitful  year. 

No  one  ought,  I  apprehend,  to  make  any  difficulty  of 
Dr.  Shaw's  describing  snow  as  the  cause  of  the  overflow- 
ing of  their  fountains,  whereas  the  Prophet  speaks  of  fill- 
ing their  cisterns  with  rain,  since  the  temperature  of  the 
air  is  so  very  different  in  different  places  of  this  country ; 
that  will  be  snow  in  a  cold  place  which  would  be  rain  in  a 
warmer  ;  snow  at  Jerusalem  which  is  very  cold,  while  it 
was  rain  that  filled  their  cisterns  elsewhere.  So  Josephus 
speaks*  of  rain  as  filling  their  reservoirs. 

Egmont  and  Heyman  mentionf  those  rejoicings  that 
Dr.  Shaw  speaks  of,  but  they  do  not  take  notice  of  the 
time  of  them.  "  When  we  were  there,"  at  Nehemiah's 
pit,  or  well,  "the  water  in  it  was  very  low;  though 
sometimes  it  overflows  in  such  a  manner  as  to  lay  the  vale 
under  water,  which  occasions  great  rejoicings  among  the 
Turks  and  Arabians,  as  being  a  certain  prognostic  of  a 
very  plentiful  year." 

OBSERVATION   XXII. 

TIMES    OF    drought;    CURIOUS    PROCESSION    OF    THB 
CHRISTIANS    AT    SIDON,    TO    OBTAIN    RAIN. 

By  a  passage  of  la  Roque4  »t  appears,  that  if  the 
usual  rains  have  failed  in  the  spring,  it  is  of  great  benefit 
to  have  a  copious  shower,  though  very  late:  for  he  tells 
us,  that  when  he  arrived  at  Sidon,  in  the  end  of  June,  it 
had  not  rained  there  for  many  months,  and  that  the  earth 
was  so  extremely  dry,   that   the   cotton  plants,  and  the 

•  Vide  Antiq.  Jud.  1.  xiv.  o.  14.    De  Bell,  Jud.  1.  i.  c.  7. 
I  Vol.  i.  p.  378.  +  Voy.  de  Syrie,  &c.  tome  1.  p.  8,  &c. 


15fe  CONCERKlNo'^Eli^EAtHEIl 

ttulberry  trees,  which  make  the  principal  riches  of  that 
(ibuntry,  were  in  a  sad  condition,  and  all  other  things  suf- 
fered in  proportion,  so  that  a  famine  was  feared,  which  is 
generally  followed  with  a  pestilence.  He  then  tells  us, 
that  all  the  sects  of  religion  which  lived  there  had, 
in  their  various  ways,  put  up  public  prayers  for  rain, 
and  that  at  length  on  the  very  day  that  the  Mohammedans 
made  a  solemn  procession  out  of  the  city,  in  the  way  of 
supplicating  for  mercy,  all  on  a  sudden  the  air  thickened, 
and  all  the  marks  of  an  approaching  storm  appeared,  and 
the  rain  descended  in  such  abundance,  that  all  those 
that  attended  the  procession  got  back  to  the  city  with 
considetable  difficulty,  and  in  disorder.  He  adds,  that  the 
rain  continued  all  that  day,  and  part  of  the  night,  which 
perfected  the  revival  of  the  plants,  and  the  saving  of  the 
productions  of  the  earth. 

La  Roque  is  evidently  embarrassed  with  this  fall  of  the 
tain  just  at  the  time  the  Mohammedans  were  presenting 
their  supplications,  when  neither  the  solemn  prayers  of  the 
Greek  Bishop,  nor  those  of  the  Latin  Monks,  nor  even 
the  exposing  of  the  Host  for  many  days,  had  been  thus 
honored :  "  At  last,"  said  he,  "  Heaven,  which  bestows 
its  favours,  when  and  how  it  pleases,  and  who  causes  it 
to  rain  on  the  unjust  and  the  infidel,  permitted  so  great 
an  abundance  of  rain  to  fall,"  &c.  But  there  certainly 
was  no  occasion  for  any  such  disquietude,  there  was  no 
dispute  which  religion  was  most  excellent  involved  in  this 
transaction,  nor  does  any  thing  more  appear  in  it  than  this, 
that  GoDy  the  universal  parent,  having  at  length  been 
sought  to  by  all,  showered  down  his  mercies  upon  all. 
But  the  intention  of  these  papers  leads  me  to  remarks  of 
a  different  kind. 

This  author  does  not  tell  us  when  this  rain  fell,  which 
is  to  be  regretted,  and  the  more  so,  as  he  is  often 
exact  in  less  important  matters.  However,  it  could  not 
be  before  the  end  of  June,  N.S.  for  he  did  not  arrive  at 


IN  THE  HOLY  LAND.  15ft 

Sidon  until  then  i*  and  it  could  not  be  so  late  as  the  usual 
time  of  the  descent  of  the  autumnal  rains,  for  the  cottoa 
is  ripe  in  September,!  until  the  middle  of  which  month 
those  rains  seldom  fail,  often  later,  and  this  rain  is  suppos- 
4^4  to  have  been  of  great  service  to  the  growing  cotton ; 
consequently,  these  general  prayers  for  rain  could  not  re- 
fer to  autumnal  showers,  but  a  late  spring  rain,  whicb 
probably  happened  soon  after  hia  arrival,  or  about  the 
time  that  Dr.  Russell  tells  us  those  severe  thunder  show- 
ers fell  at  Aleppo,  which  I  have  before  taken  notice  of, 
that  is,  about  the  beginning  of  July,  O.S.     And  though 
the  harvest  must  have  been  over  at  Sidon  by  the  time 
this  gentleman  arrived  there,  and  they  had,  therefore, 
nothing  then  to  hope  or  to  fear  for  as  to  that,  yet  as  the 
people  of  those  countries  depend  so  much  on  garden  stuff, 
the  inspissated  juice  of  grapes,  figs,  olives,  &c.  they  might 
be  apprehensive  of  a  scarcity  as  to  these  too,  which  they 
might  hope  to  prevent  by  this  late  rain. 

For  the  like  reason  such  a  rain  must  have  been  ex- 
tremely acceptable  in  the  days  of  David.f  And  it  must 
have  been  more  so,  if  it  came  a  good  deal  earlier,  though 
we  must  believe  it  to  have  been  after  all  expectations  of 
it  in  the  common  way  were  over :  and  such  an  one,  I  sup- 
pose, was  granted.  Dr.  Delany  indeed,  in  his  Life  of 
David,  tells  us,  that  the  Rabbins  suppose  the  descendants 
of  Saul  hanged  from  March,  from  the  first  days  of  the 
barley  harvest,  to  the  following  October,  and  he  seems 
to  approve  their  sentiments.  Dr.  Shaw  mentions^  this 
affair  only  cursorily  ;  however,  he  appears  to  have  imag- 
ined that  tbey  hanged  until  the  rainy  season  came  in 
course.  But  surely  we  may  much  better  suppose  it  was 
such  a  rain  as  la  Roque  speaks  of,  or  one  rather  earlier. 
The  ground  Delany  goes  upon  is  a  supposition,  that  the 
bodies  that  were  hanged  up  before  the  Lobd,  hung  until 

*  P.  5.  t  Sec  Pococke's  Desc.  of  the  East,  v.ii.  p.  61. 

+  2  Sam.  xxi.  10.  fP.136. 


160  eONCERNING  THE  WEATHER 

the  flesh  was  wasted  from  the  bones,  which  he  thinks  in 
aflSrmed  in  the  13(h  verse   of  that  chapter;  but,  I  must 
confess,  no  such  thing  appears  to  be  affirmed  there  ;  the 
bodies  of  Saul  and  his  sons,  it  is  certain,  hanged  but  a  very 
litde  while  on  the  wall  of  Bethshan  before  the  men  of  Ja- 
besh  Gilead   removed  them,  which  jet  are  called  bones, 
They  took  their  bones  and  buried  theniy  1  Sam.  xxxi.  13, 
the  seven  sons  of  Saul  then  might  hang  a  very  little  time 
in  the  days  of  King  David.     And  if  it  should  be  imagined 
that  the  flesh  of  Saul  was  consumed  by  fire,  verse  12,  and 
so  the  word  bones  came  to  be  used  in  the  account  of  their 
interment,  can  any  reason  be  assigned  why  we  should  not 
suppose  these  bodies  were  treated  after  the  same  manner? 
But  it  appears  that   the  word  bones  frequently  means  the 
same  thing  with  corpse,  which  circumstance  also  totally 
invalidates  this  way  of  reasoning  :  so  the  embalmed  body 
of  Joseph  is  called  his   bones.  Gen.  1.  25,  26,  and  Exod. 
xiii.  19  ;  so  the  lying  prophet  terms  his  body,  just  become 
breathless,  his  bones.  When  I  am  dead,  then   bury  me  in 
the  sepulchre  wherein  the  man  of  God  is  buried,  lay  my 
bones  beside  his  bones,  1  Kings  xiii.  31.     So  Josephus* 
tells  us  that  Simon  removed  the  bones  of  his  brother  Jon- 
athan the  high  priest,  who  was  slain  by  Tryphon  when  he 
was  departing  out  of  that  country,  though  Simon  seems  to 
have  removed  the  body  as  soon   as   might  be  after  Try- 
phon's  retirement. 

Such  a  late  spring  rain  would  have  been  attended,  as 
the  rain  at  Sidon  was,  with  many  advantages  ;  and  com- 
ing after  all  hope  of  common  rain  was  over,  and  presently 
following  the  death  of  these  persons  on  the  other  hand, 
would  be  a  much  more  merciful  management  of  Provi- 
dence, and  a  much  nobler  proof  that  the  execution  was 
the  appointment  of  God,  and  not  a  political  stratagem  of 
David,  than  the  passing  of  six  months  over  without  any 
rain  at  all,  and  then  its  falling  only  in  the  common  track  of 
things. 

•  Antiq.  xiii.  6. 


IN  THE  HOLY  LAND.  X61 

This  explanation  also  tbr6ws  light  on  the  closing  part 
of  this  story,  And  after  that  God  was  entreated  for  the 
land.  Dr.  Delany  seems  to  suppose  that  the  performing 
these  fnneral  rites  was  requisite  to  the  appeasing  God  :  but 
could  that  be  the  meaning  of  the  clause  ?  Were  the  igno- 
miny of  a  death  the  law  of  Moses  pronounced  accursed,  and 
the  honor  of  a  royal  funeral,  both  necessary  mediums  of 
appeasing  the  Almighty  ?  Is  it  not  a  much  easier  interpre- 
tation of  this  clause,  The  rain  that  dropped  on  these 
bodies  was  a  great  mercy  to  the  country,  and  the  return 
of  the  rains  in  due  quantities  afterward,  in  their  season^ 
proved  that  God  had  been  entreated  for  the  land  ? 

OBSERVATION  XXIII. 

SCARCELY  ANT  RAIN    IN    EGYPT.       FAMINE    IN  THE  DAYS 
OF    AHAB. 

The  famine  in  the  time  of  Ahab  might,  it  is  possible, 
be  more  severe  than  this  in  the  days  of  David  ;  neverthe- 
less, I  do  not  apprehend  the  threatening,  that  there  should 
be  no  dew  nor  raiuy  meant  that  there  should  not  be  a 
single  drop  of  rain  for  three  years, 

William,  Archbishop  of  Tyre,  in  the  12th  century, 
speaks*  of  a  drought  in  the  country  about  Damascus  in 
his  time,  which  continued  for  five  years  ;  but  the  Arch- 
bishop does  not  suppose  there  had  been  no  rain  at  all 
about  Damascus  for  five  years,  but  only  not  the  usual, 
not  the  necessary  quantities  of  it,  ariditas  nimia  and 
pluviarum  inopia  being  the  terms  he  makes  use  of:  and 
this,  I  apprehend,  is  all  that  is  necessary  for  us  to  sup- 
pose is  meant,  when  we  read  there  was  no  rain  nor  dew  for 
three  years. 

Philo  tells  us,  there  is  no  winter  in  Egypt.f  His  fol- 
lowing words  show  that  he  meant  no  rains,  no  hail,   no 

•  Gcsta  Dei  per  Frnncos,  p.  1017.  fDc  Vifa  Mosi:, 

VOL.    I.  21 


1^  caNCEHNiNG  THE  WEATHER 

(bunder,  no  violent  storms  of  wind,  which  constitutes  ai 
eastern  winter.  In  like  manner  Maillel*  quotes  Pliny  as 
affirming  there  were  no  rains,  no  thunder,  no  earthquakes, 
in  that  country ;  Maillet  however  affirms  that  he  had  seen 
it  rain  there  several  times,  and  that  there  were  two  earth- 
quakes in  Egypt  during  his  residence  in  it.  He  supposes 
therefore  that  the  non  tremit  of  Pliny  signifies  it  seldom 
feels  earthquakes,  and  when  it  does,  is  not  damaged  by 
them;  the  non  plnity  non  tonat,  that  it  seldom  rains,  se/- 
dom  thunders  there,  though  as  to  the  seacoast  the  rains 
and  thunderings  are  often  very  violent,  but  it  does  not 
rain  there  as  in  other  countries.  Pitts,f  an  eyewitness, 
confirms  Maillet's  account  of  the  rain  of  Egypt,  assuring 
us  that  when  he  was  at  Cairo,  which  is  at  a  considerable 
distance  from  the  seacoot,  it  rained  to  that  degree,  that 
having  no  kennels  in  the  streets  to  carry  off  the  water,  it 
was  ankle  deep,  and  in  some  places  halfway  up  the  leg. 
And  BilTiop  Pococke  assures  us,  that  even  in  the  Upper 
Egypt  itself,  it  hailed  and  rained  almost  all  one  morning, 
when  he  was  there  in  the  month  of  February,  and  that  it 
rained  very  hard  the  night  following;  and  that  on  the  18th 
of  that  month  it  rained  at  Gava  Kieber  in  the  night,  and 
again  after  it  was  day,  and  again  in  the  evening.  ^ 

We  may  understand  by  these  accounts  what  the  sacred 
writer  means  when  he  says,  Egypt  has  no  rain,  Zecb. 
xiv.  18.  He  must  be  understood  in  the  same  qualified 
sense  that  Maillet,  or  rather  the  Abbot  Mascrier,  puts 
upon  Pliny ;  in  the  same  qualified  sense  we  must  under- 
stand Philo  ;  and  consequently,  all  that  is  necessary  to 
understand  by  the  expressions,  "  There  shall  be  no  dew 
nor  rain,"  is,  that  they  should  not  be  in  the  usual,  in 
the  necessary  quantities.  Such  a  suspension  of  rain  and 
dew  was  sufficient  to  answer  the  chastising  purposes  of 
God  ;  and  an  absolute  drought  of  three  years*  continu- 
ance must   surely  have  destroyed   all  the   trees  of  the 

•  Let.  1.  p.  19.  t  P-  95 


IN  THE  HOLY  LAND.  163 

counfry,  as  well  as  occasioned  a  temporary  famine  ;  but  no 
such  destruction  is  intimated  in  the  Scriptures. 

Those  prodigious  long  droughts  that  have  happened  in 
Cyprus,  one  of  seventeen  years,  and  another  of  thirtysix, 
must  have  been,  one  would  think,  of  the  same  kind,  not 
such  favourable  seasons  of  rain  as  they  often  enjoy,  when 
they  have  a  prodigious  plenty  of  corn,  but,  however,  not 
a  total  suspension.  Yet  a  late  traveller,  speaking  of  these 
celebrated  droughts  says,  no  rain  fell  in  the  space  of  sev- 
enteen years  ;*  had  this  been,  strictly  speaking,  the  fact, 
one  would  imagine  that  not  only  the  inhabitants  must  have 
quitted  the  island,  which  he  tells  us  they  did,  but  almost 
every  vegetable  must  have  perished. 

This  suspension  of  rain  in  the  time  of  Elijah,  was  for 
three  years  and  six  months,  according  to  the  Apostle 
James,  ch.  v.  17.  If  the  rain  was  only  withheld  three 
winters,  it  would,  in  the  common  course  of  things,  have 
been  a  withholding  rain  for  about  six  months  more  than 
the  three  years  strictly  speaking,  because  the  summers  of 
the  East  are  dry  ;  it  would,  however,  have  been  more  nat- 
ural to  have  expressed  it  by  a  drought  of  three  years ; 
but  if  the  usual  rains  were  withheld  four  winters,  and  first 
appeared  late  in  the  spring  after  their  suspension,  there 
would  be  a  great  energy  in  thisforoi  of  speech,  three  years 
and  six  months.  .  .i7i.«  «it    ■ 

i  Sir  J.  Chardin  seems  to  have  supposed  the  rain  first 
returned  in  the  spring.  For  proposing  this  as  a  difficulty, 
in  one  of  his  MS.  notes,  the  Prophet  said.  The  barrel  of 
meal  shall  not  waste,  neither  shall  the  cruise  of  oil  fail  ^ 
until  the  day  that  the  Lord  sendeth  rain  upon  the  earth  ; 
but  from  the  day  of  the  coming  of  the  rain  unto  that  of 
having  corn,  must  there  not  be  a  considerable  lime?  He 
answers.  No,  not  in  the  East;  as  soon  as  there  is  rain 
there  are  herbs,  and  other  things  for  food.  This,  though 
not  clearly  expressed,  supposes  the  first  rain  was  a  late 
spring  one,  like  that  at  Sidon,  which  came  lime  enouf^h 

•  Egmont  and  Ilevman,  v.  i,  p,  287. 


HH  CONCERNING  THE  WEATHER 

to  produce  many  kind  of  fruits  and  esculent  herbs,  and  to 
deliver  from  the  severity  of  famine.  Further,  I  confess, 
I  do  not  see  any  necessity  of  supposing  the  miracle  ceas- 
ed the  moment  the  rain  descended,  the  words  might  mean 
no  more,  than  that  the  miraculous  increase  of  the  meal 
and  oil  should  be  continued  until  the  wants  of  this  widow 
of  Sarepta  should  be  otherwise  supplied,  the  means  of 
which  the  fall  of  rains  was  the  beginning. 

The  solicitude  of  Ahab  to  find  grass  for  his  horses  and 
mules,  seems  to  be  a  stronger  proof  that  the  first  rain  was 
in  spring,  because  that  is  the  time  of  the  year  in  which 
they  are  wont  to  put  their  horses  to  grass;  though 
this  is  not  a  proof  that  is  absolutely  conclusive,  since 
in  such  a  time  of  scarcity,  the  want  of  barley  and  straw 
might  oblige  them  to  look  for  moist  food  at  an  unusual  lime. 

Before  I  quit  this  subject,  it  may  not  be  improper  fur- 
ther to  observe,  that  Ahab's  directing  Obadiah  to  search 
for  grass,  hy  the  brooks  and  fountains  of  water,  agrees 
with  Dr.  Russell's  account  of  a  common  Syrian  summer, 
at  which  time  the  country  is  all  quite  parched  up,  except- 
ing in  those  places  where  there  is  water.* 

Sir  J.  Chardin's  is  perfectly  similar,  for  bis  remark  on 
1  Kings  xviii,  5,  is,  "  in  every  place  where  there  is  water 
there  is  always  grass  and  verdure,  for  water  makes  every 
thing  grow  in  the  East." 

OBSERVATION  XXIV. 

WHIKLAVINDS     OFTEN     PRECEDE    RAINf     AND    RAISE    IM- 
MENSE   CLOUDS    OF    SAND. 

When  rain  does  fall  in  those  countries  it  is  often  preced- 
ed by  a  squall  of  wind.  So  the  ingenious  Editor  of  the  ac- 
count of  the  Ruins  of  Palmyra,  which  city  is  situated  in  a 
vast  desert,  and  from  thence  called  Tadmor  in  the  Desert,f 
tells  us  they  seldom  have  rain  there,  except  at  the  equi- 
noxes;  that  nothing  could  be   more  serene  than  the  sky 

•  p.  10.  t  Tadmor  in  the  Wilderness,  in  2  Chron.  viii.  4. 


'  '      IN  THE  HOLY  LAND.  1^5 

all  the  time  that  they  were  there,  which  was  about  a 
fortnight  in  Martfh,  except  one  afternoon  that  there  was  a 
small  shower,  preceded  by  a  whirlwind,  which  took  up 
such  quantities  of  sand  from  the  desert  as  quite  darkened 
the  sky.* 

Agreeably  to  this  the  Prophet  Elisha,  when  in  the 
Deserts  with  the  king  of  Israel,  who  was  marching  with 
his  army  against  Moab,  and  which  was  ready  to  perish 
for  want  of  water,  told  him,  Thus  saith  the  Lord,  make 
this  valley  full  of  ditches.  For  thus  saith  the  LorD;,^ 
ye  shall  not  see  wind,  neither  shall  ye  see  rain;  yet 
that  valley  shall  be  filled  with  water,  that  ye  may  drink, 
both  ye,  and  your  cattle,  and  your  beasts,  2  Kings  iii. 
16,  17.  It  was  natural  for  a  squall  to  precede  this  rain, 
therefore  he  said,  ye  shall  not  see  wind. 

The  circumstance  of  the  winds  taking  up  such  quanti- 
ties of  sand  as  to  darken  the  sky,  may  serve  to  explain 
that  passage  of  the  sacred  historian,  which  describes  the 
heaven  as  black  with  winds  as  well  as  clouds,  1  Kings 
xviii.  45,  for  neither  of  these  circumstances,  a  squall  pre- 
ceding the  rain,  or  its  raising  great  quantities  of  dust,  is 
peculiar  to  deserts.  Dr.  Russell  speaks  of  both  as  com- 
mon at  Aleppojf  which  is  at  a  considerable  distance  from 
a  desert  properly  speaking,  though  the  country  to  the 
eastward  wears  that  name.J  The  winds  prognosticating 
rain  is  also  referred  to  Prov.  xxv.  14,  Whoso  boasteih 
himself  of  a  false  gift,  or  pretends  he  will  give  a  valuable 
gift,  and  disappoints  the  expectation,  is  like  clouds  and 
winds  without  rain. 

OBSERVATION  XXV. 

WHIRLWINDS     USUALLY    COME     FROM    THK    SOUTH.        OF 
THE    PESTILENTIAL    WIND    CALLED    SAMMIEL. 

The  South  seems  to  be  the  quarter  from  whence  the 
Scriptures  suppose  whirlwinds  usually  arose,  but  we  arc 

•  P.  37.  t  Vol.  i.  Appendix,  p.  13.  ^  Ibid,  p.  60. 


166  CONCERNING  THE  WEATHER 

not  to  imagine  thej  invariably  came  from  that  point  of  the 
compass. 

As  Palmyra  was  seated  in  a  vast  desert,  it  is  not  cer* 
tain  whence  the  whirlwind  came,  mentioned  under  the 
last  Observation,  since  it  only  speaks  of  its  taking  up  vast 
quantities  of  sand  from  the  desert.  It  might  do  that  from 
whatever  quarter  it  came,  since  a  desert  surrounds  Pal- 
myra. One  would,  however,  be  inclined  to  suppose  the 
East  is  meant,  since  that  is  the  side  which  is  described  as 
a  vast  waste.*  '   »f4wir  tJtiv  Jib*»ji  -<  »  cjS 

Ezekiel  speaks  of  a  whirlwind  that  came  from  the  North, 
eh.  i.  4,  but  this  was  what  appeared  to  him  in  vision,  and 
therefore  might  not  be  according  to  the  course  of  nature  ; 
however,  historians  inform  us  they  sometimes  really  arise 
from  thence.  So  the  Archbishop  of  Tyre,  speaking  of  a 
battle  between  the  Prince  of  Antioch,  and  Doldequin, 
King  of  Damascus,  attended  by  some  powerful  Turcoman 
and  Arab  warriors,  tells  us,  "  that  in  the  heat  of  the  fight, 
a  most  terrible  whirlwind,  arising  from  the  North,  appear- 
ed in  the  field  of  battle,f  exerting  its  violence  on  the 
ground  in  the  sight  of  all,  and  in  passing  further  on, 
brought  with  it  such  a  quantity  of  dust,  which  it  had  ta- 
ken up,  that  it  so  filled  the  eyes  of  the  troops  on  both 
sides  as  to  incapacitate  them  from  fighting ;  and  at  length 
raising  itself  up»  with  a  circular  motion,  mounted  high  up 
into  the  air."J 

This,  however,  is  mentioned  as  a  memorable  and  extra- 
ordinary thing,  the  more  southern  countries  being,  I  ap- 
prehend, much  more  liable  to  them,  where,  according  to 
Maillet,  they  are  wont  to  come  from  the  South.  Forgiv- 
ing an  account  of  the  dangers  attending  the  caravans  that 
pass  between  Egypt  and  Nubia,  he  mentions  the  risk 
they  run  of  losing  their  way  in  those  thirsty  deserts  ;  and 
then  adds,  "The  danger  is  infinitely  greater,  when  the 
South  wind  happens  to  blow  in  these  deserts..  The  least 
mischief  that  it  produces  is  the  making  dry  their  leather 

*  P.  33.         t  Somewhere  not  far  from  Aleppo,         ^^  Gesta  Dei,  p.  82t. 


IN  THE  HOLY  LAND.  Igf 

bottles,  or  goat  skins  filled  with  water,  which  they  are 
obliged  to  carrj  with  them  in  these  journies,  and  by  this 
means  depriving  both  man  and  beast  of  the  only  relief 
they  have  against  its  violent  heats.  This  wind,  which  the 
Arabs  call  poisonous,  stifles  on  the  spot  those  that  are  un- 
fortunate enough  to  breathe  in  it:  so  that  to  guard  against 
its  pernicious  effects,  they  are  obliged  to  throw  them- 
selves speedily  on  the  ground,  with  their  face  close  to 
these  burning  sands,  with  which  they  are  surrounded,  and 
to  cover  their  heads  with  some  cloth  or  carpet,  lest  in 
respiration  they  should  suck  in  that  deadly  quality  which 
every  where  attends  it.  People  ought  even  to  think 
themselves  very  happy  when  this  wind,  which  is  always 
besides  very  violent,  does  not  raise  up  large  quantities  of 
sand  with  a  whirling  motion,  which  darkening  the  air,  ren- 
der the  guides  incapable  of  discerning  their  way.  Some- 
times whole  caravans  have  been  buried  by  this  means  un- 
der the  sand,  with  which  this  wind  is  frequently  charg- 
ed."* 

•  Let  dern.  p.  218  A  Turk,  who  had  twice  performed  the  pilgrimage 
of  Mecca,  told  me  that  he  had  witnessed  more  than  once  the  direful  effects 
of  this  hot  pestilential  wind  in  the  Desert;  he  has  known  all  the  water 
dried  out  of  their  Girbahs  in  an  instant,  by  its  influence.  The  camels  alone 
he  said,  gave  notice  of  its  approach,  by  making  a  noise,  and  burying  their 
mouths  and  nostrils  in  the  sand.  When  this  was  observed,  it  was  an  infal- 
lible token  that  this  desolation  was  at  hand ;  and  those  who  imitated  the 
camels  escaped  suffocation. 

The  intelligent  Mr.  Jackson,  who  performed  what  is  called  the  journey 
overland  from  the  East  Indies  to  Europe,  in  the  year  1797,  and  published 
bis  Journal  in  1799,  8vo.  Cadell  and  Davies,  has  given  the  following  partic- 
ular account  of  this  extraordinary  wind.  When  on  the  river  Tigris,  about 
five  days'  journey  from  Bagdad,  on  June  10,  he  remarks,  '  I  had  here  an 
opportunity  of  observing  the  progress  of  the  hot  winds,  called  by  the  natives 
Sammiel,  which  sometimes  prove  very  destructive,  particularly  at  this 
season.  They  are  most  dangerous  between  twelve  and  three  o'clock,  when 
the  atmosphere  is  at  its  greatest  degree  of  heat.  Their  force  entirely  de- 
pends on  the  surface  over  which  they  pass.  If  it  be  over  a  Desert,  where 
there  is  no  vegetation,  they  extend  their  dimensions  with  amazing  veloci- 
ty, and  then  their  progress  is  sometimes  to  wiudward.  If  over  grass  or 
any  other  vegetation,  they  soon  diminish  and  lose  much  of  their  force.  If 
over  -water,  they  lose  all  their  electrical  force,  and  ascend ;  yet  I  have 
sameluaei  felt  their  eSieets  across  tlie  mvr  where  it  was  at  least  a  mile 


I6t  CONCERNING  THE  WEATHER 

This  passage  shows. with  how  much  propriety  whirl- 
winds of  the  South  are  mentioned:  they  are  chiefly  felt 
in  the  countries  of  the  South  ;  and  they  commonly  arise 
from  that  quarter,  but  not  always ;  being  sometimes  found 
in  countries  more  to  the  North  than  Judea,  and  not  rising 
from  the  South.  They  show  also  what  is  meant  by  de- 
struction coming  as  a  whirlwind.     Prov.  i.  27. 


OBSERVATION  XXVI. 

EFFECTS    OF    VIOLENT     RAINS    ON    THE    MUD    BUILDINGS 
OP   THE    EAST. 

Dr.  Russell  informs  us  that  the  rains  of  Aleppo  gen- 
erally fall  in  the  night,  and  in  very  heavy  showers.* 
Probably  the  same  observation  might  be  made  in  Judea, 
and  that  the  Prophet  refers  to  it,  when  he  speaks  of  a 
Tabernacle  for  a  shadow  in  the  day  lime  from  the  heat  ; 
and  for  a  place  of  refuge,  and  for  a  covert  from  storm 
and  from  rain  :  Isai.  iv.  6,  for  a  refuge  and  a  covert  from 
storm  and  from  rain  in  the  night,  I  suppose,  if  we  express 
the  thought  at  large. 

But  it  is  only  generally,  not  universally  so,  and  there- 
fore  Josephus   might  justly  mentionf  it  as  a   strange, 

broad.  An  instance  of  this  happened  here.  Mr.  Stephens,  &  fellow  travel- 
ler, wasbathingin  the  river,  having  on  a  pair  of  Turkish  drawers.  On  his 
return  from  the  water,  there  came  a  hot  wind  across  the  river  which  made 
his  dratuers  and  himself  perfectly  dry  in  an  instant.  Had  such  a  circum- 
stance been  related  to  him  by  another  person,  he  declared  he  could  not 
have  believed  it.  I  was  present,  and  felt  the  force  of  the  hot  wind  ;  but 
should  otherwise  have  been  as  incredulous  as  Mr.  Stephens'  P.  81.  This 
corroborates  the  relation  I  received  from  the  Turk. 

I  have  no  doubt  that  the  destruction  of  the  Assyrian  host  mentioned  Isai. 
xxxvii.  36,  was  occasioned  by  such  a  pestilential  blast.  It  is  there  said,  that 
the  Angel,  messenger  or  agent,  of  the  Lord  -went  forth,  and  smote  in  the 
camp  of  the  Assyrians  one  hundred  and  fotirscore  and  five  thousand.  Now 
this  Angel  of  the  Lord  is  expressly  called  v.  7.  nil  ruach,  a  blast  or  vnnd, 
which  in  my  opinion  can  leave  no  doubt  of  the  manner  in  which  this  pas- 
sage is  to  be  understood.  Edit. 

*  Vol.  i.  Appendix,  p.  9,  &c.  t  Antiq.  I.  xv.  cap.  II. 


tN  THE  HOLY  LAND.  ]g9 

though  not  an  incredible  circumstance,  which  tradition 
affirmed  to  be  true,  that  no  rain  fell  in  the  day  tiuie,  to 
beat  off  the  workmen,  while  the  Temple  was  repairing  in 
the  time  of  Herod,  but  all  in  the  night,  though  the  doing 
it  took  up  a  year  and  a  half. 

Of  some  effects  that  frequently  follow  the  violence  of 
the  rains, ^  and  are  explanatory  of  iome  passages  of 
Scripture,  Dr.  Shaw  has  given  the  following  account  :f 

"  When  I  was  at  Tozer,  A.  D.  1727,  we  had  a  small 
drizzling  shower,  that  continued  for  the  space  of  two 
hours  ;  and  so  little  provision  was  made  against  accidents 
of  this  kind,  that  several  of  the  houses,  which  are  built 
only  with  palm  branches,  mud,  and  tiles  baked  in  the  sun, 
corresponding  perhaps  to,  and  explanatory  of  the  unteni- 
pered  mortar,  Ezek.  xiii.  11,  fell  down  by  imbibing  the 
moisture  of  the  shower.  Nay,  provided  the  drops  had 
been  either  larger,  or  the  shower  of  a  longer  continuance, 
or  overflowing,  in  the  Prophet's  expression,  the  whole 
city  would  have  undoubtedly  dissolved  and  dropt  to 
pieces.  The  like  also,  to  compare  great  things  with 
small,  might  have  happened  on  the  same  occasion,  even 
to  such  of  the  Egyptian  Pyramids  as  are  made  of  brick : 
the  composition  whereof,  being  only  a  mixture  of  clay, 
mud,  and  straw,  Exud.  v.  7,  slightly  blended  and  knead- 
ed together,  and  afterward  baked  in  the  sun,  would  have 
made  as  little  resistance.  The  straw  which  keeps  these 
bricks  together,  and  still  preserves  its  original  colour, 
seems  to  be  a  proof  that  these  bricks  were  never  burnt  or 
made  in  kilns." 

OBSERVATION  XXVII. 

OF  GOLD  AND  HOT  WINDS, 

Otb  translators   were  at  a  loss  how  to  render  Prov. 
"xxv.  23 :  they  could  not  tell  whether  Solomon  spoke  ot 

*  The  washing  down  iixeir  building!?,  j  P.  15C. 

TOL.  I.  32 


49%  CONCBHNING  THE  WEATHER 

the  North  wind  as  driving  away  rain,  or  bringing  it 
forthj  and  therefore  put  one  sense  io  the  text,  and  the 
other  in  (he  margin.  I  have  observed  nothing  decisive  as 
to  (his  point  in  the  books  of  travels  which  I  have  perused, 
and  indeed  very  litde  more  relating  to  the  winds,  except- 
ing the  violent  heat  they  sometimes  bring  with  them  in 
these  countries.    '  fjw.u*«i«|;  «H.  4|trm  « 'enli^yoe  awKywi^ 

At  Aleppo,  "  thfe  coldest  winds  in  the  win! ier  ar6  thos4 
that  blow  from  between  the  North-west  and  the  East,  and 
the  nearer  thej  approach  to  the  last  mentioned  point,  the 
colder  they  are  during  the  winter,  and  part  of  the  spring. 
But  from  the  beginning  of  May  to  the  end  of  September, 
the  winds  blowing  from  the  very  same  points,  bring  with 
them  a  degree  and  kind  of  heat  which  one  would  imagine 
came  out  of  an  oven,  and  which,  when  it  blows  hard,  will 
affect  metals  within  the  houses,  such  as  locks  of  room 
doors,  nearly  as  much  as  if  they  had  been  exposed  to  the 
rays  of  the  sun ;  yet  it  is  remarkable  that  water  kept  in 
jars  is  much  cooler  at  this  time,  than  when  a  cool  wester- 
ly wind  blows.  In  these  seasons,  the  only  remedy  is  to 
shut  all  the  doors  and  windows,  for  though  these  winds  do 
not  kill  as  the  Sammiel,  which  are  much  of  the  same  na- 
ture, do  in  the  desert,  yet  they  are  extremely  troublesome, 
causing  a  languor  and  difficulty  of  respiration  to  most  peo- 
ple,*'* &c. 

There  is  a  visible  opposition  between  this  account  of 
the  hot  winds,  as  to  their  direction,  and  those  words  of 
our  LoRD,f  When  ye  see  the  South  wind  blow,  ye  say, 
there  will  be  heat,  and  it  cometh  to  pass :  they  are  both, 
however,  just ;  for  Cornelius  le  BruynJ  tells  us  that  when 
he  was  at  Rama,  there  was,  on  the  9th  of  October,  a  south- 
east wind,  which,  coming  from  the  desert  beyond  Jordan, 
caused  a  great  heat,  and  that  this  continued  some  days. 
The  niceness  of  Russell's  observations  will  not  allow  us 

*  Russell,  vol.  i.  pp.  C6,  67,  A  gentleman  wlio  lived  long  in  the  East, 
gives  rather  a  different  account.  "I  was  at  Madras  many  years  wherte 
this  wind  prevails  in  the  hot  season,  and  the  effect  it  always  had  on  me, 
VTAS  extremely  pleasant.    I  was  always  better  in  health."  Edit. 

t  Luke  xii.  55.  +  Tome  2,  p.  IS2. 


IN  THE  HQLY  LAND#  17 1 

to  doubt  the  truth  of  what  he  says  of  the  direction  of  the 
hot  winds  at  Aleppo  ;  nor  can  we  doubt  of  their  direction 
being  from  the  South  in  Judea;  this  is  owing,  without 
doubt,  to  the  different  situations  of  these  places.  In  com- 
mon, the  direction  of  the  wind  which  brings  these  great 
heats  is  the  same  as  le  Bruyn  observed  it  in  Judea. 
They  are  southerly  winds  in  Barbary*  and  Egyptf  that 
bring  heat. 

This  observation  of  Russell,  to  indulge  myself  in  some- 
thing of  a  digression  from  the  great  design  of  these  pa- 
pers, which  is  to  illustrate  the  Scriptures,  concerning  the 
great  coolness  of  water  kept  in  jars  when  these  hot  winds 
blow,  than  in  the  time  of  a  cool  westerly  wind,  very  much 
takes  off  from  the  seeming  incredibility  of  the  account 
Josephus  gives  us  of  the  water  of  Jericho,J  which  drawn, 
he  says,  before  sunrise,  grows  colder  upon  being  expos- 
ed to  the  sun,  and  assumes  the  contrary  quality  to  that 
of  the  circumambient  air;  and  on  the  other  hand,  is  com- 
fortably warm  in  winter.  The  Editors  of  Josephus  have 
mentioned  nothing  of  this  kind  in  their  notes  on  that  no- 
ble author.  Dr.  Russell's  account  possibly  may  be  of 
us.e  to  bis  future  publishers.^ 

I  cannot  help  adding,  though  it  is  a  still  greater  digres- 
sion, that  surely  this  phenomenon  at  Aleppo  deserves  a 
very  nice  inquiry.  A  temporary  thermometer  may  be 
made  with  water,  as  well  as  spirit  of  wine  or  quicksilver, 
and  metalline  instruments  have  been  made  to  measure  the 
degrees  of  heat  and  cold  :  if,  then,  water  is  colder  at  the 
time  these  hot  winds  blow  than  when  there  is  a  cool  west- 

»  Dr.  Shaw,  p.  13*.  t  Maillet  Let.  11,  p.  110. 

i  De  Bello  Jud.  1.  4.  c.  8. 

$  This  coolness  of  the  water,  in  this  extraordinary  prevalence  of  heat,  is 
without  diflGcuIty  accounted  for  on  the  principle  ai evaporation.       Edit- 

On  the  same  principle,  says  Dr.  Pat.  Russell,  Notes  to  his  brother's 
History  of  Aleppo,  vol.  i  p.  360,  wine  is  cooled  by  wrapping;  a  wet  cloth 
round  the  bottle,  and  then  hanging  it  up  at  the  tent  door  in  the  summer. 
Provided  the  cloth  be  kept  constantlj  wet,  the  operation  will  be  more 
speedily  completed  by  suspending  the  botUe  in  the  sun,  Edxt. 


i^B  CONCERNING  THE  WEATHER 

criy  wind,  and  consequently  is  lessened  in  its  bulk,  and 
metal  is  more  heated,  and  consequently  more  expanded  ; 
a  very  great  difference  must  appear  between  a  water  and 
a  metalline  measurer  of  the  degrees  of  heat  and  cold :  and 
the  ascertaining  these  differences,  and  the  drawing  proper 
consequences  from  these  observations,  may  agreeably 
employ  a  virtuoso,  and  lead  to  valuable  discoveriegifbaji 

^  OBSERVATION  XXTIII. 

Ft^RTHEll    PARTICULARS  OF    THE    HOT  SUFFOCATING    WIKDtk 

These  hot  winds  are  not  deadly  at  Aleppo,  as  they 
are  in  the  desert,  but  Dr.  Russell  gives  us  to  understand 
they  are  troublesome  enough,  and  oblige  people  to  shut 
themselves  up.  They  are  very  incommoding  and  suffo- 
cating in  Barbary  and  Egypt  too.  *  Le  Bruyn  is  as  un- 
happily reserved  as  to  his  observations  on  the  weather 
of  Judea,  as  he  is  tediously  exact  in  things  of  that  kind 
elsewhere,  which  is  more  to  be  regretted,  as  he  spent  a 
much  longer  time  there  than  most  travellers  do,  and  that 
experience  must  settle  the  sense  of  many  passages  of 
Scripture  of  this  sort,  criticising  being  very  unequal  to  the 
task  :  however*  he  sufficiently  gives  ui  to  understand  that 
the  heat  was  violent,  and  consequently  disagreeable.     " 

What  a  different  interpretation  from  that  of  many  crit- 
ics will  this  oblige  us  to  put  upon  Cant,  iv,  16?  Many  of 
them,  among  whom  is  the  very  learned  Bochart,  suppose 
the  meaning  of  the  first  part  of  the  verse  to  be.  Depart, 
O  North  wind,  and  come  thou  South  !  jo'n  'j<ni  |i3:f  ""iijr 
uree  tsaphon  oo  boee  teeman.  Jeromf  was  anciently  of 
the  same  opinion,  and  calls  the  North  wind,  Ventus  dur- 
rissimus,  the  most  nipping,  pinching,  unpleasant  wind. 
Some  modern  critics  say  this,  and  much  more,  to  support 

*  See  Shaw  and  M aillet  in  the  pages  referred  to  under  the  kst  observa. 
pons,  and  Egmont  and  Heyman,  v.  ii.  p-  62i     i\-^ti{  f*  *  liYwUVt-^   n>-^<|f 

•j-  In  Com.  in  Ezech.  c.  407 


IN  THE  HOLY  LAND,    a  i  •  1 73 

their  interpretation.  Sanctius,*  in  particular,  affirms  that 
the  South  wind  is  warm  and  humid,  which  by  its  gentle 
heat  clothes  the  trees  with  leaves  ;  and  supposing  that  it 
might  be  objected  to  him,  that  Virgil  speaks  of  the  South 
wind  as  destructive  to  fiowers^  he  gravely  answers,  that 
the  South  wind  may  be  destructive  in  Italy  and  Spain, 
and  stormy  in  Africa,  yet  placid  and  healthful  in  Pales- 
tine, because  it  blows  from  the  sea,  from  whence  it  ac- 
quires an  humid  warmth  and  softness.  Winds  of  the  same 
direction,  in  different  countries,  may  undoubtedly  pro- 
duce different,  nay,  contrary  effects,  but  there  is  not  the 
least  ground  for  the  notion  of  Sanctius.  The  South  wind 
in  Judea  can  hardly  be  said  to  blow  from  the  sea ;  in  Ita- 
ly it  certainly  does,  yet  is  destructive.  Le  Bruyn  de- 
scribes it  from  experience  as  producing  great  heat,  not 
the  gentle  warmth  of  Sanctius.  If  then  the  South  winds 
of  that  country  were  as  troublesome  as  they  are  in  Barba- 
ry  and  Egypt,  and  as  the  winds  from  the  Desert  are  at 
'Aleppo,  which  it  seems  are  of  the  same  nature  as  the 
South  winds  of  Judea;  or  if  they  were  only  very  hot, 
.  as  le  Bruyn  certainly  found  them  to  be  in  October, 
would  the  Spouse  have  desired  the  North  wind  to  depart, 
and  the  South  wind  to  blow  in  the  time  of  fruit,  that  is,  in 
the  heat  of  summer,  as  these  authors  imagine  ?  It  cannot 
be.  The  contrary,  I  make  no  doubt,  is  the  true  meaning 
of  her  words,  though  I  do  not  know  that  any  critic  has 
understood  them  so,  all  acquiescing  in  the  preceding  in- 
terpretation ;  or  the  notion  that  both  are  desired,  which 
is,  in  one  view,  still  more  insupportable ;  desiring  a  sul- 
try, suffocating  wind  to  blow,  and  this  after  having,  with 
the  same  breath,  wished  for  a  wind  from  the  opposite 
quarter. 

None,  I  presume,  will  deny  the  first  verb,  ^ny  nree, 
may  signify,  awake,  or  arise,  O  North  wind  !  all  the  hes- 
itation must  be  about  the  second,  and  come  ^kis  boee, 
thou  South  !  which,  I  suppose,  signifies  enter  into  thy 
repositories.     That  ht  yatza  and  t<3  ho,  with  their  deri- 

•  Vide  PoliSyn.inloc. 


174  CONCEBHINC  THE  WBATfIEK 

iatives,  are  directly  opposed  to  each  other,  we  oiaj  learu^ 
from  2  Sam.  iii.  25 ;  yatsa  h  frequently  applied  to  th^, 
causing  the  wind  to  blow,  Ps.  cxxxv.  7,  Jer.  x.  13,  eh>  IW 
16,  consequently  the  word  bo  should  signify  the  direct 
contrary,  that  is,  its  ceasing  to  blow,  or  its  entering  intp 
its  repository ;  just  as  yatsa  is  used  to  express  the  rising 
of  the  sun,  its  coming  out  of  its  chamber,  Ps.  xix.  and  bo, 
its  setting  or  entering  into  it,  Deut.  xi.  30,  Josh.  i.  4« 
And  so  the  true  explanation  of  these  words  will  be. 
Arise,  O  North  wind  !  and  retire^  thou  South  !  blow  up- 
on my  garden,  let  the  spices  thereof  flow  forth,  that  m^ 
Beloved  may  come  into  his  garden,  invited  by  the  cool^ 
ness  and  fragrance  of  the  air,  and  may  ^at  his  pleasan\ 
fruits ;  for  if  the  South  wind  blows,  the  excessive  hea^ 
will  forbid  his  taking  the  air,  and  oblige  him  to  shut 
close  the  doors  and  windows  of  his  apartments.^' 


3d)  ap  3  OBSERVATION  XXIX. 

FRSQUENT    LIGHTNIKOS    IN    AUTUMN    AT    ALEPPCuoCi 

Dr.  Kussell,  in  his  description  of  the  weather  at  Alep- 
po in  September  tells  us,f  that  seldom  a  night  passes 
without  much  lightning  in  the  Northwest  quarter,  but 
not  attended  with  thunder,  and  when  this  lightning  ap« 
pears  in  the  West  or  South-west  points,  it  is  a  sure  sign 
of  the  approaching  rain,  which  is  often  followed  with 
thunder.  This  last  clause,  which  is  not  perfectly  clear^ 
is  afterward  explained  in  his  more  enlarged  account 
of  the  weather  of  the  year  1746,  when  he  tells  us,  that 
though  it  began  to  be  cloudy  on  the  4th  of  September, 
and  continued  so  for  a  few  days,  and  even  thundered,  yet 
^o  rain  fell  until  the  11th,  which  shows  that  his  meaning 
was,  that  the  lightning  in  the  West  or  South-west  points, 

•  After  havini;  added  the  words  of  the  original  text,  I  leave  this  eriti- 
oiim  as  1  found  it,  without  pretending  to  believe  that  H  ha*  very  fair  pre- 
tensions to  credit  £b i  t. 

t  Vol,  ii.  p.  285. 


IN  THE  HOLY  LAND.      '  ^  ff^ 

•which  is  often  followed  with  thunder,  is  a  sure  sign  of 
the  approach  of  rain,  t  have  before  mentioned,  that  a 
squall  of  wind,  and  clouds  of  dust,  are  the  usual  forerun- 
ners of  these  first  rains.  Most  of  these  things  are  taken 
notice  of  in  Ps.  cxxxv.  7,  Jer.  x.  13,  ch.  li.  16,  and  serve 
to  illustrate  them.  Russell's  account  determines,  1  think, 
that  the  O'KiyJ  nesiim,  which  our  translators  render  rti- 
pours,  must  mean,  as  they  elsewhere  translate  the  word, 
tlouds.  It  shows  that  God  tnaketh  lightnings  for  the 
i'ain,  they,  in  the  West  and  South-west  points,  being  at 
Aleppo  the  sure  prognostics  of  rain.  The  squalls  of 
wind  bring  on  these  refreshing  showers,  and  are  therefore 
precious  things  of  the  treasuries  of  Crou,  and  when  he 
thunders,  it  is  the  noise  of  waters  in  the  heavens.  How 
graphically  do  the  Prophets  describe  the  autnmftal  rains, 
which  God  brings  on  the  earth  after  the  drought  of  sura- 
ttier,  and  how  much  greater  energy  appears  in  these  words, 
after  we  have  gained  an  acquaintance  with  the  weather  in 
the  Elagt,  than  before  1 

OBSERVATION  XXX. 

EXTRACTS    FROM     CURIOPS     CALENDARS,   SUbWlSTG    THE 
tIMES    WHEN    DIPPBRBNT    FRPITB    RIPSN. 

Upon  the  whole,  though  the  country  about  JerasaTem 
is  several  degrees  to  the  South  of  Aleppo  and  Algiers^ 
and  a  difference  not  much  greater,  in  point  of  latitude,  has 
sometimes  made  a  surprising  difference  as  to  the  ripening 
of  vegetable  productions,*  yet  they  seem  to  pass  through 
their  respective  gradations  at  much  the  same  time  in  all 
these  three  places,  as  appears  by  comparing  the  accounts 

•  "  I  could  not  lielp  bcfn*  surprised  at  finding  to  great  difference  be- 
tween the  climates  of  Spain  and  Italy;  for  those  vegetable  productions  we 
had  some  tifne  fli;a  seen  ripe  in  Spain,  about  Cadiz,  as  peaSe  and  beans, 
tor  ihstanee,  Were  here,  about  Leghorn,  now  in  bloisom.  We  were,  in. 
deed,  told  that  this  was  something  extraordinary,  and  o-wing  to  th6  severity 
frf  tUe  last  wiater."    Ir^ntont  and  lleyman's  Trar.  vol.  i.  p.  4C. 


IfB  CONCBRNINQ  THE  WEATHER 

that  are  given  us  of  Aleppo  and  Algiers,  with  the  follow- 
ing specimen  relating  to  the  Holy  Land. 

The  trees  are  represented  by  Albertus  Aquensis,  as 
but  just  grown  green  at  Jerusalem  in  March.  Gesta  Dei 
per  Fr.  309. 

And  at  Aleppo,  according  to  Russell,  their  leafless 
state  continues  no  longer  than  the  end  of  February  or  be- 
ginning of  March. 

According  to  Raimond  de  Agiles,  though  a  considera- 
ble part  of  the  harvest  was  got  in  at  Ramula,  or  Ramah, 
as  it  is  now  called,  yet  not  at  all,  when  the  Crusade  army^ 
in  which  he  was,  arrived  there  in  the  end  of  May,  or 
beginning  of  June,  Gesta  Dei,  &c.  p.  178.  In  like 
manner  Fulcherius  Carnotensis  gives  us  to  understand 
that  the  harvest  at  Ramula  was  ripe,  but  not  gathered  in, 
about  the  middle  of  May,  A.D.  1102,  pp.  413,  1017.* 

And  in  Barbary,  Sbaw  tells  us,  harvest  time  is  in  like 
manner  in  the  end  of  May  and  beginning  of  June,  p.  137 ; 
but  at  Aleppo  it  appears  to  be  rather  sooner,  being  gener- 
ally over  by  the  20th  of  May,  Russell  p.  65. 

The  middle  of  March  was  found  to  be  the  earliest  time 
for  beans  near  Tripoli,  about  half  way  from  Aleppo  to  Je- 
rusalem.    Gesta  Dei,  &c.  p.  26.f 

And  beans  are  usually  full  podded  in  the  latter  end  of 
February,  or  the  beginning  of  March,  in  Barbary.    Shaw, 

If  St.  Jerom  may  be  believed,  the  vintage  in  Judea  is 
not  till  the  end  of  September,  or  beginning  of  October. 
Com.  in  Amos,  c.  4.  ' 

*  It  ii  supposed  in  the  Scriptare,  that  the  barlef  L&rrest  was  earlier  tbaa 
the  wheat ;  it  is  so,  it  seems,  at  this  day  ;  for  Hasselquist  found  the  people 
carrying  home  barley  the  second  of  May,  N  S.  in  the  country  betweea 
Acra  and  Nazareth,  it  ripening  there  about  that  time,  p.  153  ;  but  he 
found  the  wheat  was  not  ripe  the  fourteenth  of  May;  for  travelling 
that  day  in  the  road  from  Acra  to  Seide,  he  saw  a  shepherd  eating  for  his 
dinner  half  ripe  ears  of  wheat,  after  they  were  roasted,  with  which  Hassel- 
quist himself  was  also  treated  by  him,  p.  166.  The  wheat,  then,  is  seTera! 
days  later  than  the  barley. 

t"TIu»/'  says  Dr.  Russell,  ia  a  MS.  note,  «*i8ear«rr  than  at  Aleppo."^ 


4  ..IN  THE  HOLY  LAND.  IfT 

The  vintage  at  Aleppo  begins  as  soon,  lasting  from 
the  15th  of  September  to  the  same  day  of  Novem- 
ber, according  to  Egmont  and  Heyman,  v.  ii.  p.  348.  So 
Shaw  says,  (he  grape  begins  to  ripen  in  Barbary  the  lat- 
ter end  of  July,*  and  is  ready  for  the  vintage  in  Septem- 
ber, p.  146. 

And  we  must  be  content  to  make  our  estimate  accord- 
ingly, and  consider  the  accounts  of  Aleppo  and  Algiers  as 
nearly  descriptive  of  what  happens  in  the  Holy  Land,  un- 
til a  more  particular  and  accurate  description  of  it  shall 
be  given  us  by  some  curious  observer. f 

•  The  account  of  Albertus  Aqoensis,  Gesta  Del,  p.  176,  may  be  under* 
stood  so  as  not  to  contradict  this  representation.  The  siege  of  Jerusalem 
by  tlie  Crusade  array,  in  1099,  is  said  to  have  been  begun  June  the  7th,  and 
to  have  ended  July  the  15th,  Gesta  Dei,  p.  750,  and  752,  consequently  be- 
fore grapes  ripen,  according  to  wh-Jt  happens  in  Barbary  ;  yet  Albertus 
Aquensis,  complaining  of  the  great  want  of  water  among  the  besiegers  in 
the  abovementioned  page,  observes,  there  was  always  there  a  great  plenty 
of  grapes  and  of  wiiic  among  the  chiefs,  and  those  that  had  money.  But 
then  those  grapes  might  not  be  such  as  grew  in  that  country  ;  in  a  suc- 
ceeding place,  p.  285,  the  same  writer  tells  us,  that  pomegranates,  wine, 
and  other  refreshments  were  sent  to  this  siege  from  Cyprus  by  way  of 
present,  and  if  by  way  of  present,  they  might  be  carried  from  thence  for 
sale  too.  Now,  according  to  Dr.  Shaw,  pomegranates  ripen  not  in  Barbary 
till  August,  p  14s,  which  is  later  than  the  time  grapes  begin  to  be  fit  to 
be  eat  there  ;  c^iisequently  the  country  that  could  send  ripe  pomegranates 
to  that  siege  could  send  ripe  grapes,  though  the  grapes  about  Jerusalem 
might  not  be  at  that  lime  sufficiently  ripe.  And,  indeed,  had  these  ripe 
grapes  been  the  produce  of  the  Holy  Land,  the  common  soldiers  would 
have  seized  them  for  theirown  use  :  they  would  not  have  been  tasted  ouly 
by  the  wealthy. 

•J-  From  a  MS  calendar,  kept  at  Sheeraz  by  an  European  gentleman,  it 
may  not  be  improper  to  extract  the  following  short  notes  : 

"June  1,1787.  ^'ipricets,  cherries,  apples,  green  gages,  and  plums 
came  into  season.  Do.  19.  .Wus.t  melons  came  into  season.  July  Cth. 
JUack  grapes  came  into  seasoH.  9lh.  Pears  came  into  season.  13th.  JVhite 
grapes  and  -water  melons  came  into  season.  18th.  The  Jlrline  plum  came 
into  season.  20lh.  Jlpricots,  apples,  and  cherries,  gone  out  of  season.  22d. 
figs  came  intrt  season.  AuGvs  r  6th.  Peaches,  and  the  small  luhite grape, 
called  ^fiArerj'e.  came  into  season.  September  Cth  Pomegranates  eume 
into  season.  10th.  Quinces,  and  the  large  red  grape,  called  Safiibi,  came 
into  season.  Uctober  4th.  The  large  pear,  called  ^Ibbusi,  cnme  into 
season  7th.  Walmits  came  info  season."  These  are  all  the  remarks  I 
find  in  this  calendar  relative  to  the  productions  of  this  country.    I'.ni  r. 

VOL.  I.  23 


I?8  CONCERNING  THE  WEATHEK 

I  will  only  add  here,  that  if  fruits  ripen  at  Aleppo,  JTe- 
rnsalem,  and  in  Barbary,  nearly  at  the  same  time,  it  must 
have  been  Jhe  latter  end  (^  July,  or  rather  the  beginning 
of  August,  that  the  Spies  were  sent  out  by  Moses  to 
search  the  Promised  Land.  '• 

For  Moses  tells  us,  the  time  of  giving  them  their  instruc-*^ 
tions  was  (he  time  of  the  first  ripe  grapes.  Numb.  xiii.  20. 
At  forty  days'  end  they  returned,  and  brought  with  them  a 
large  bunch  of  grapes,  pomegranates,  and  figs,  v.  23,  25. 
The  three  sorts  of  fruits,  then,  are  contemporaries,  and 
grapes  continue  in  perfection  after  they  begin  to  ripen. 
All  this  agrees  with  Dr.  Shaw's  account,  who  tells  us, 
grapes  begin  to  ripen  in  Barbary  the  latter  end  of  July, 
and  are  ready  for  the  vintage  in  September;  that  the 
kermez,  or  kermouse,  the  fig  properly  so  called,  which 
they  preserve  and  make  up  into  cakes,  consequently,  that 
which  is  most  useful  for  food,  is  rarely  ripe  before  August ; 
and  that  the  month  of  August  produces  the  first  pomegran- 
ates,* They  received  their  orders  about  the  beginning 
of  August,  and  returned  about  the  middle  of  September; 
and  their  observations  concerning  the  fatness  of  the 
land  must  have  related  to  the  wine,  figs,  and  other  fruits 
of  the  country,  rather  than  to  the  corn,  which  had  been 
long  gathered  in,  and  lay  concealed  in  secret  reposi-' 
tories. 

OBSERVATION  XXXI.'        ''^  * 

THE     FIRST,     OR    EARLY     RAINS,     FALL     AT     DIFFERENT 
TIMES    IN    JUDEA,    IN    BARBARY,    AND    AT    ALEPPO. 

r 

We  must  not,  however,  imagine  the  circumstances  of 
the  weather  in  all  these  three  places  are  exactly  alike.  I 
have  already  remarked  one  difference  relating  to  tue  time 
of  the  fall  of  the  first  rains  in  autumn,  Dr.  Shaw  informing 
us,  that  they  do  not  fall  in  the  Holy  Land  in  an  usual  way 

•Torn.  L  part  3,  §2.  '    '•' <»  ■ 


o'--      IN  THE   HOLY  LAND,   f.,  ^fg 

nntU  about  Ihe  beginning  of  November ;  whereas  in  Barba- 
ry  they  often  fall  in  September,  as  they  also  commonly 
do,  according  to  Dr.  Ruasell,  at  Aleppo. 

If  this  account  concerning  the  Holy  Land  be  just,  it  is 
visible  that  the  intention  of  Solomon  in  Eccles.  xi.  2,  Give 
a  portion  to  seven,  and  also  to  eight,  &c.  could  not  be, 
give  a  good  portion  of  thy  seed  to  thy  field  in  the  month 
Tisri,  &c.*  since  as  Tisri  answers  to  the  latter  end  of 
September,  and  first  part  of  October,  and  they  do  not 
even  begin  to  plough  till  after  the  rains,f  a  good  portion 
of  their  seed  could  not,  in  common,  be  given  to  the  fields 
of  Judea  in  Tisri,  nor  indeed  any  at  all,  the  sowing  of  the 
earliest  wheat  not  being  till  the  middle  of  October  at  Alep- 
po or  Algiers,  which  yet  the  Chaldee  Paraphrast  sup- 
poses. But  this  explanation  may  perhaps  point  out  the 
country  of  the  Paraphrast.  Were  remarks  to  be  made 
with  accuracy  on  the  weather  of  those  eastern  countries 
in  which  the  Jews  anciently  resided,  and  on  their  agricul- 
ture, &c.  it  would  serve  to  explain  many  passages  in  their 
old  books,  and  perhaps  determine  the  countries  where 
8uch  and  such  books  were  written,  or  such  and  such  de- 
cisions given.  Every  body  must  be  sensible,  very  curi- 
ous observations  might  be  made  on  this  subject ;  but  I 
shall  only  remark,  that,  on  account  of  these  differences, 
these  writings  are  very  insuflicient  to  determine  points  of 
this  kind,  of  which  Dr.  Lightfoot  has  given  a  very  ample 
and  convincing  proof. 

OBSERVATION  XXXII. 

APPLICATIOir     OF    THE    FOREGOING     PARTICULARS     FOB 
THE    EXPLANATION    OF    VARIOUS    TEXTS.         'f  "- 

Observations  of  this  kind  may  also  be  requisile  to 
explain  some  passages  of  Scripture,  which  speak  of  the 
weather  in   other  countries  as  well  as  that  of  Judea,  and         if 

•  Ste  Lightfoot,  T.  ir.  p.  rA\.  f  Shaw,  p,  137.    Russell,  vol.  i.  p.  7^^. 


180  CONCERNING  THE  WEATHER 

should  be  added   as  a  kind  of  appendix  to  the  foregoing 
articles.     Thus  Jacob  complains  of  the    drought   in   the^ 
day  time  in  Mesopotamia,  and  of  the  frost  of  the  nigbt** 
there  :  and  accordingly  Rainvolff,   speaking  of  his  going^* 
down  the  Euphrates,  gives  us  to  understand  that  he  wa«^ 
vo;it  to  wrap  himself  up  in  a  frize  coat  in  the  night  time, 
to  keep  himself  from  the  frost  and  dew,  which  are  very  * 
frequent  and  violent  there;*  the  heat,  or  drought  of  the^ 
day,  might  well  be   equally  complained  of  by  Jacob,  fori 
Thevenot  tells  us,f  that  when  he  travelled  in  this  country'* 
of  Mesopotamia,  the  heat  was  so  excessive,  that  though  he 
wore  upon  his  head  a  great  black  handkerchief  which  he*' 
could  see  through,  after  the  manner  of  the  eastern  people 
when  they  travel,  yet  he  had  many  times  his  forehead  so*^ 
scorched  as   to  swell  exceedingly,  and  so  as  to  have  the'-^ 
skin  come  off,  and   that  his  hands  also  were  continually 
scorched.     In  the  day  the  drought  consumed  me,  and  the 
frost  by  night.     Gen.  xxxi.  40.f 

The  6th  vol.  of  MS.  C.  enables  me  to  give  my  readers'* 
an  addition  to  this  observation,  which  is  too  curious  to  be  ^ 
suppressed.  ^^ 

"  This  passage,  he  is  speaking  of  Gen.  xxxi.  40,  is  one 
of  those  many   places  of  Scripture,   which  show  the  im- 
portance of  knowing  the  nature  of  those  countries,  which 
served  as  the  theatre  to  all  the  transactions  there  recount-^' 
ed.     For  in  Europe    the  days  and  nights  resemble  each'* 
other,  with  respect  to  the  qualities  of  heat  and  cold  ;  but  ^ 
it  is   quite  otherwise  in  the  East.     In  the  Lower  Asia,  in    ' 
particular,  the  day  is  always  hot,  and  as  soon  as  the  sun  is 
fifteen  degrees  above  the  horizon,  no  cold   is   felt,  in  the 
depth  of  winter  itself.     On  the  contrary,  in  the  height  of 
summer  the  nights  are  as  cold  as  at  Paris  in  the  month  of 
March.     It  is  for  this  reason  that  in   Persia  and  Turkey 

•  Ray's  Travels,  p.  155,  156.  f  Part  ii.  p.  52. 

+  It  was  no  wonder  that  Thevenot  felt  all  this  inconvenience,  from  the 
bare  circumstance  of  his  wearing  a  black  turban   or  head  dress,  no  matter   -, 
how  thin  ;  all  dark  colours  strongly  absorb  the  rays  of  the  sun,  while  all 
li£^ht  colours  reflect  them.    Edit. 


IN  THE  HOLY  LAND.  181 

Ihej  always  make  use  of  furred  habits   in   the  country, 
such  only  beins;  suflScient  to  resist  the  cold  of  the  nights. 
I  have  travelled  in  Arabia,  and  in  Mesopotamia,  the  thea- 
tre of  the  adventures  of  Jacob,  both  in  winter  and  in  sum- 
mer, and  have  found  the  truth  of  what  the  Patriarch  said, 
That  he  was  scorched  with  heat  in  the  day,  and  stiffened 
with  cold  in  the  night.     This  contrariety  in  the  qualities 
of  the  air  in  twentyfour  hours  is  extremely  great  in  some 
places,  and  not   conceivable  by  those  that  have  not  seen 
it :  one  would  imagine  they  had  passed  in  a  moment  from 
the   violent  heats  of  summer  to   the  depth  of  winter. 
Thus  it  hath   pleased  God  to  temper  the  heat  of  the  sun 
by  the  coolness  of  the  nights,  without  which  the  greatest 
part  of  the  East  would  be  barren,  and  a  desert :  the  earth 
could  not  produce  any  thing.'*     And  then  after  some  re- 
flections on   the   temperature  of  the  countries  under,  or 
near  the  line,  and  in  particular  of  Batavia;  the  agreeable- 
ness  of  that  country   to  the   constitutions  of  the  Dutch, 
who  transplanted  themselves  thither  from  a  northern  cli- 
mate ;  and   to    the   growth  of  the  plants  of  Europe ;  he 
closes  with  observing,  the   Prophet  Jeremiah  speaks  of 
this  contrariety  of  the  eastern  days  and  nights  in  his  xxxvi. 
ch.  V.  30.* 

Mr.  Drummond,  who  did  not  think  proper  to  pass  orer 
the  Euphrates  into  Mesopotamia,  on  account  of  the  bru- 
tality of  the  officer  who  commanded  at  Beer,  observed 
the  like  difference  between  the  days  and  nights  on  the 
Syrian  side  of  the  Euphrates :  for  he  tells  us«f  **  In  this 
country  we  always  found  the  mornings  cold,  and  the  day- 
scorching  hot."  There  is  nothing  wonderful  in  the  se- 
cond particular,  but  it  is  natural  to  be  surprised  at  the 
first,  since  this  journey  from  Aleppo  to  the  Euphrates 
commenced  August  17,  1747,  and  ended  the  last  day  of 
that  month.  Cold  mornings  the  latter  end  of  August  in 
the  Deserts  of  Arabia,  near  the  Euphrates,  appear  strange, 
but  are,  we  see,  confirmed  by  very  different  authors  :  how 
well  founded  then  the  complaint  of  Jacob  ! 

•  See  also  Barucb,  ii.  25.  f  p.  205. 


|8g  CONCERNING  THE  WEATHER 

*•'""  OBSERVATION  XXXIII.  f 

4 

TIME    OF    SHEEP    SHEARING    IN    THE    IIOLV    LAND.        ' 

SiGNiOR  LusiGNAN,  ill  the  conversation  I  had  with 
hint  about  the  Holy  Land,  assured  me,  that  the  lime  of 
sheep  shearing  in  that  country  is  March,  and  toward  the 
beginning  of  that  month,  O.  S.  which  is  another  proof, 
that  they  are  about  six  weeks,  or  two  months,  forwarder 
in  that  country  than  we  are  in  England,  for  the  washing 
many  of  the  sheep  this  year,*  in  the  village  in  Suffolk  in 
which  I  am  writing  this,  preparatory  to  the  shearing  them, 
was  the  ITthof  May. 

The  ingenious  Dr.  Aikin,  in  his  Calendar  of  Nature, 
lately  published,  throws  sheep  shearing  into  June  ;  and 
though  he  makes  it  one  of  the  earliest  of  the  rural  employ- 
ments of  that  month,  yet  one  of  the  tokens  to  mark  out 
the  time,  given  by    Dyer,  whom  the  Doctor  quotes,  is 

when  the 

'  z 

•      —     I  Verdant  a /<fer  spreads  'f 

.i<*>»«4i.<wle.        Her  silver  flowers :  ^ 

which  is  not,  at  least  was  not,  this  year  until  the  middle 
of  June,  which  would  make  sheep  shearing  three  months 
earlier  in  the  Holy  Land  than  it  is  with  us  :  but  Dyer's 
prescription  is  not  followed  by  iis  as  to  the  time  of  per, 
forming  this  operation,  nor,  it  seems,  by  the  Arabs  of  Pal- 
estine. 

The  account  I  have  given  of  the  time  of  sheep  shear- 
ing there,  may  be  confirmed  by  testimonies  of  a  different 
kind,  which  it  may  not  be  improper  to  set  down  here. 

Aristophanes,  the  old  Greek  comic  writer,  supposes, 
that  among  the  economical  uses  to  be  derived  from  the 
appearing  of  certain  birds,  the  fixing  the  time  proper  for 
the  shearing  of  sheep  is  one,  and  that  the  coming  of  the 
kite  proclaims  its  being  then  the  fit  season.f 

•  17*5.  t  Stillingfleet's  Miscell.  Tracts,  p.  Q»7: 


IN  THE  HOLY  LAND.  >  f  83 

Now  Stillingfleet,  in  some  notes  on  the  Calendar  of 
Theophrastus,*  fitted  for  Athens,  in  the  latitude  3T°25', 
observes,  that  "  between  March  11  and  26  the  kite  and 
the  nightingale  appear,  at  Athens,  that  is,  in  the  leafing 
season.  The  appearance  of  the  hawk  is  consonant  to 
what  Aristotle  sajs,  as  quoted  in  the  preface,  but  is  de- 
termined upon  a  different  kind  of  testimony;  which  is  a 
proof  that  this  part  of  the  Calendar,  at  least,  is  tolerably 
well  stated." 

These  accounts  of  Lusignan  and  Stillingfleet,  if  admitted, 
fix  the  time  of  the  year  when  Jacob  set  out  upon  his  re- 
turn from  Padan  Aram  to  his  father  Isaac,  Gen.  xxxi.  19; 
when  Judah  cohabited  with  his  daughter  in  law,  Gen. 
xxxvili.  12,  &c.  at  which  time  of  the  year,  according  to 
Dr.  Russell,  they  are  wont  to  kill  their  kids  about  Alep- 
po,f  agreeable  to  the  proposal  made  by  him  to  send  httii 
kid  from  the  flock,  v.  IT.  ' 

In  like  manner  circumstances  determine,  that  it  was 
in  the  spring  that  the  sheep  of  Nabal  were  shorn,  1  Sam. 
XXV,  2,  for,  among  other  things  carried  by  Abigail  to  Da- 
vid for  a  present,  mention  is  made  of  five  measures  of 
parched  corn,  V.  18;  but  we  know  from  other  passages 
of  Scripture,  that  the  time  of  their  using  parched  corn 
was  wont  to  be,  when  it  was  fuH  grown,  but  not  ripe.  Lev. 
xxiii.  14,  Ruth  ii.  14,  2  Sam.  xvii.  28.  This  observation 
may  be  of  Bome  use  in  settling  the  chronology  of  David's 
wandering  up  and  down  in  the  deserts,  when  forced  to 
fly  to  avoid  the  vengeance  of  Saul.  .^••!*!?'«»'' 

There  is  another  circumstance,  in  this  affair  of  Nabal, 
which  should  not  be  passed  over  in  silence,  and  that  is,  that 
his  sheep  seem  to  have  been  sent  into  the  wilderness  to 
feed,  some  time  before  the  season  of  sheep  shearing 
came  on,  and  that  they  were  there  by  night  as  well  as  by 

•  Ibid.  p.  324. 

i'  < 

f  Besides  the  railk  of  the  goats,  their  kids  add  some  part  to  the  diet  oi 
the  inhabitants,  a  few  being  killed  ia  the  spring  and  aatutnn.  History  of 
Aleppo,  Vol,  i.  p.  115. 


184  COKCERNING  TUB  WEATHER 

daj.  This  seems  lo  be  pointed  out  by  the  7tb,  and  the 
13th  and  16(h  verses:  Thy  shepherds^  which  were  with 
Us,  me  hurt  them  not,  neither  was  there  ought  missing  to 

themt  all  the  while  they  were  at  Cannel The  men 

were  very  good  unto  «s,  and  we  were  not  hurt,  neither 
missed  we  any  thing,  as  long  as  we  were  conversant  with 
ihetn,  when  we  were  in  the  fields.  They  were  a  wall  un- 
to us,  both  by  night  and  day,  all  the  while  we  were  with 
them  keeping  the  sheep.  It  would  be  happy  if  some  cu- 
rious observer  would  give  the  world  an  accurate  economi- 
cal calendar  for  the  Holy  Land,  as  things  are  now  con- 
ducted among  them.  As  nothing  of  that  sort  has  been 
published,  that  I  know  of,  I  must  content  myself  with  ob- 
serving, that  in  Sweden,  where  the  sheep  are  housed  in 
the  winter,  they  are  turned  into  the  fields,  according  to 
the  exact  and  distinct  economical  calendar  for  that  coun- 
try, when  the  white  wagtail  appears,^  which  happened 
above  a  month  before  the  nightingale  returned,f  which 
being  coincident  with  the  appearance  of  the  kite,  marks 
out,  according  to  the  ancients,  the  time  of  sheep  shearing. 
But  as  the  climate  of  countries  in  the  North  of  Europe 
differs  so  considerably  from  that  of  Judea,  the  interval 
between  the  turning  sheep  out  into  their  common  pas- 
tures, after  housing  them  in  the  winter  time,  and  shearing 
them,  may  differ  very  much  in  different  countries. 

The  sacred  historian  mentions  also  Absalom's  celebrat- 
ing sheep  shearing  time  with  magnificence,  but  without 
mentioning  any  circumstance  that  requires  attention  here. 
But  with  regard  to  the  first  of  these  accounts,  that  re- 
lating to  Jacob,  who  left  Mesopotamia  when  Laban  went 
to  shear  his  sheep,  we  may  with  propriety  take  notice  of 
the  acuteness  which  Jacob  showed,  in  selecting  the  arti- 
cles of  that  present  he  made  Esau.  To  disengage  him- 
self from  the  company  of  his  brother,  and  that  of  his  at- 
tendants, which  gave  him  a  good  deal  of  apprehension, 
he  pleaded  not  only  the  tender  age  of  his  children,   but 

.    *  StflUngfleet'sMiscell.  Tracts,  p.  865,  fP.  267. 


IN  THE  HOLY  LAND.  185 

tbesfate  of  his  cattle,  which  had,  many  of  them,  young 
by  their  sides,  which,  if  they  were  overdriven  but  one 
day,  would  die.*  Had  he  however,  made  a  present  of 
such  cattle  to  Esau,  Esau  might  have  alleged  the  same 
reason  for  marching  with  the  like  slowness.  He  chose 
out  therefore  such  as  might  make  up  a  noble  present,  but 
not  such  as  were  encumbered  with  their  young.  No 
Iambs,  or  kids,  or  calves.  There  were  indeed  thirty 
milch  camels  with  their  colts,  and  twenty  she  asses,  of 
^  which  ten  had  foals.  But  it  appears  from  a  passage  of 
Sir  John  Chardin,f  that  camels  generally  couple  about 
June,  and  continue  in  a  pregnant  state  eleven  or  twelve 
months  ;J  consequently  these  colts  must  have  been  nine 
or  ten  months  old  at  this  time,  and  therefore  very  able  to 
travel  much  more  briskly  than  the  lambs  and  kids  of  that 
i  ■priug.  The  ten  foals  of  the  twenty  she  asses  were  cho- 
,^sen,  I  suppose,  with  like  caution,  though  I  have  not  such 
determinate  evidence  to  produce  as  to  their  probable  age. 

OBSERVATION  XXXIV. 

AUTUMNAL  VEGETATION  IN  THE  EAST. 

As  the  weather  and  the  appearances  in  the  vegetable 
world,  in  the  spring,  have  been  shown  to  be  much  alike  in 
Barbary,  at  Aleppo,  and  in  the  Holy  Land  j  it  may  not 
be  improper  to  add,  that  there  is  the  same  resemblance  as 
to  the  productions  of  autumn,  and  consequently,  that  we 
may  safely  apply  what  may  be  said  of  one  place  to  either 
of  the  other. 

I  have  shown  it  as  to  the  weather  of  the  autumn  in  some 
preceding  Observations,  let  us  now  proceed  to  the  vege- 
table productions. 

Dr.  Russell  tells  us  the  cotton  is  not  gathered  about 
Aleppo  until  October,  O.  S.  vol.  i.  p.  78. 

•  Gen.  xxx.ii.  1§.  f  Tom.  2, pp.  Ii2,  J 43.  ^  P.  28. 

VOL.  I.  24 


186  CONCERNING  THE  WEATHER 

And  in  If 74,  when  a  late  traveller  visited  Judea,  the 
cotton  at  Ada,  where  he  considered  himself  as  entering 
into  the  precincts  of  the  Holy  Land,  was  cfaieflj  gather- 
ed in  the  23d  of  October,  at  which  time  he  arrived  there. 
Rauwolff  found  that  at  the  time  when  the  cotton  was 
tender  and  woolly,  near  the  Euphrates,  about  the  middle 
of  October,  the  corn,  which  grew  very  high,  was  full  ripe, 
and  fit  to  be  cut  down.*  The  same  traveller  found  then 
Indian  millet  in  the  same  place  just  fit  to  be  cut  down, 
and  that  in  some  places  they  had  it  in  already. f  The 
corn  then  and  millet  were  somewhat  sooner  ripe  than  the 
cotton. 

The  same  writer  tells  us  that  the  fields  about  Rama 
were  very  fruitful,  well  tilled,  and  sown  with  corn,  cotton, 
and  Indian  millet ;  and  that  it  was  harvest  time  when  he 
was  there,  which  wa?  the  middle  of  September,  a  great  of- 
ficer being  there  to  gather  a  great  quantity  of  corn  to  send 
to  Joppa,  to  go  by  sea  to  Con8lantinople,J  where  there 
was  then  a  scarcity. ^  But,  according  to  him,*  all  the 
corn^  was  not  in  by  the  end  of  the  month. || 

VViien  Rauwolff  found  the  Turkey  wheat  and  Indian 
millet  fully  ripe  on  the  bank  of  the  Euphrates,  he  found 
the  Indian  musk  melon  still  continued  in  season,  and  in 
great  quantities.** 

In  like  manner  he  found  them  growing  in  the  Holy 
Land,  in  great  quantities,  very  pleasant,  and  well  tasted, 
chiefly  those  that  were  red  within,  when  the  Turkey  corn 
and  Indian  millet  began  to  be  ripe  there.ff 

Russell  tells  us,  that  the  greater  part  of  the  trees  about 
Aleppo  retain  their  leaves  until  the  beginning  of  Decem- 
ber.    Vol.  i.  p.  79. 

And  in  1774,  some  of  the  fruit  trees  had  begun  to  drop 
their  leaves  when  that  late  visitor  of  the  Holy  Land  left 
Joppa,  which  must  have  been  toward  the  close  of  Novem- 

•Ray's  Travels,  p.  153.    fP.  161.  t  P.  229.  §  P.  22r. 

^  Which  corn  appears  to  hare  been  the  Indian  or  Turkey  'wheat,  our 
kind  of  ^vhcat  being  reaped  in  the  East  mueh  sooner- 

!|  P.  319.  ••  P.  161.  tt  P-  229. 


IN  THE  HOLY  LAND.  1%J 

ber,  «s  he  did  not  leave  Jerusalem  until  the  19th  of  that 
month,  N.  S.  and  arrived  in  Egypt  on  the  2d  of  Decem- 
ber, but  the  olive  and  fig  trees  were  not  then  on  the  de- 
cline. 

OBSERVATION  XXXV. 

IlfTENSELy    COLD    WINDS    AND  ABUNDANCE   OF   6NOW    OH 
MOUNT    LIBANUS,  IN    THE    SPRING. 

i  When  Trachonitis  was  a  part  of  the  Jewish  country,  as 
it  appears  to  have  been  in  the  time  of  our  Lord,*  if  it  did 
not  come  within  the  original  bounds  of  the  half  tribe  of 
Manasseh,  it  must  have  been  a  very  different  country  from 
the  South  of  Judea  in  point  of  heat.  But  this  is  no  more 
than  happens  to  other  countries,  and  only  makes  the  mul- 
tiplication of  meteorological  observations  and  economical 
calendars  necessary,  according  to  the  nature  of  the  differ- 
ent districts,  in  order  to  have  a  just  idea  of  the  whole. 

Thus  de  la  Valle,  having  passed  over  Jordan,  at  that 
time  called  Jacob's  Bridge,  and  travelling  in  the  country 
of  Trachonitis,  which  was  very  fertile  and  well  cultivated, 
he  found  that  "  Mount  Libanus  was  not  far  off,  and  that 
from  thence  came  a  wind  so  vehement  and  so  cold,  with 
such  an  abundance  of  snow,  that  though  we  were  in  a  man- 
ner buried  in  our  quilted  coverlets,  yet  it  was  sensibly 
felt  all  night,  and  was  very  disagreeable. "f 

When  I  add,  that  it  appears  that  this  disagreeable  night 
was  that  between  the  29th  and  30th  of  April,  1616,  we 
shall  not  be  a  little  surprised.  The  snow  that  fell  in  the 
night  between  the  41h  and  5th  of  May,  O.  S.  1740,  or  the 
15th  and  16th  of  May,  N.  S,  and  some  remains  of  which 
I  saw  four  days  after,  and  which  so  much  astonished  us  in 
Suffolk,  was  not  so  far  into  the  spring  with  us,  as  the  night 
between  the  29th  and  30th  of  April  into  a  Syrian  spring, 
which  I  have  elsewhere  shown  is,  in  common,  six,  if  not 
eight  weeks  earlier  than  our's. 

•  Luke  iii  1.  Ilerod  being  Tetrarch  of  Galilee,  and  his  brother  PhiUu 
Tetrarch  of  Iturea,  arid  of  the  region  of  Trachonitic. 

t  P.  121,  122, 


CHAP.  II. 

CONCERNING  THEIR  LIVING  IN  TENTS. 

OBSERVATION  I. 

GENERAL  OBSERVATIONS  ON  THEIR  DWELLING  IN  TENT8. 

However  pleasant  the  dwelling  under  tents  may  be  in 
our  country  in  summer,  and  the  taking  now  and  then  are- 
past  there  in  some  favourable  days  of  winter,  yet  the  se- 
verity of  the  weather  at  some  times  makes  the  constant 
living  in  tents,  which  the  Patriarchs  are  said  to  do,  seem 
strange  to  some,  if  not  almost  incredible. 

This  apprehension  will  not  be  lessened  by  the  com- 
plaints of  some  modern  travellers;  such  as  that  of  Maun- 
drell,  who,  speaking  of  lodging  under  tents  in  the  night 
preceding  the  2d  of  March,  says  they  were  glad  to  part 
early  in  the  morning  from  their  campaign  lodging,  the 
weather  being  too  moist  and  cold  for  such  discipline  ;  and 
presently  after,  in  describing  the  pouring  down  of  rain, 
attended  with  lightning  and  thunder,  on  the  3d  of  March, 
he  complains  that  they  knew  not  well  which  to  be  most 
concerned  for,  themselves  who  enjoyed  the  miserable 
comfort  of  a  dropping  tent,  or  their  servants  and  horses, 
which  had  nothing  but  their  own  clothes  to  protect  them. 

They  that  read  such  passages  may  wonder  at  the  com- 
mon supposidon  of  Abraham's  dwelling  in  tents  through 
the  whole  year  in  the  land  of  Canaan ;  Isaac's  and  Ja- 
cob's imitating  his  example  ;  and  the  living  of  the  Recha- 
bites  in  the  same  manner,  in  the  days  of  Jeremiah,  and 
for  several  ages  before  his  time.  That  this  however  was 
the  fact,  we  have  no  reason  to  doubt,  since  it  is  done  by 
great  numbers  in  (hat  very  country  at  this  day. 

I  will  not  say  this  may  be  accounted  for  by  observing 
that  Canaan  lies  more  to  the   South  than  the   places  of 


CONCERNING  THEIR  LIVING  IN  TENTS.  189 

which  Maundrell  speaks  ;  or  that  they  might  not  so  well 
understand  the  manner  of  pitching  their  tents,  for  shoot- 
ing off  the  rain,  as  the  modern  Arabs  who  live  thus,  or 
the  Patriarchs :  there  may  be  something  in  those  obser- 
Tations,  but  no  great  matter.  The  true  answer,  I  be- 
lieve, is,  that  that  discipline  might  appear  severe  and  dan- 
gerous to  Englishmen,  which  was  safe  to  the  Patriarchs 
and  Rechabites,  who  were  used  to  this  way  of  life,  and 
which  is  accordingly  practised  by  many  at  this  very  day, 
even  in  the  northern  parts  of  Palestine. 

That  the  Arabs  do  now  practise  it,  and  spend  their  win- 
ters as  well  as  their  summers  in  these  habitations,  is  a 
most  certain  fact.  So  Mons.  d'Arvieux,  who  made  a 
visit  to  the  Arabs  of  Mount  Carmel  by  order  of  Louis 
XIV.  informs  us,*  that  they  have  no  other  places  to 
dwell  in  but  tents,  which  are  set  up  in  such  a  manner 
as  that  the  rain  slides  oflf  without  penetrating  them.  San- 
dys goes  further,f  and  says  of  these  Arabs,  that  they  lived 
in  tents,  according  to  the  ancient  custom  of  that  nation, 
even  during  the  winter,  although  possessed  of  sundry  con- 
venient houses. 

I  do  not  know  that  any  have  made  this  account  of  the 
Patriarchs  living  in  tents,  an  objection  to  the  Old  Testa- 
ment history  ;  but  had  not  the  fact  been  uncontrovertible, 
Maundrell's  complaints  might  have  formed  an  objection 
as  plausible  as  multitudes  that  are  made,  and  which  arise 
merely  from  our  being  unacquainted  with  antiquity,  and 
the  manners  of  the  East. 


OBSERVATION  II. 

WHAT    IS    MEANT    BY    HOUSES    OF    GOLD,    IVORY,  &C. 

Sir  J.  Chardin  tells  us,  "  that  the  late  king  of  Persia 
caused  a  tent  to  be  made,  which  cost  two  millions.  J  They 

•  Voy.  dans  la  Pal.  par  la  Roquc,  p.  173.  f  P.  158, 

+  French  livers,  we  arc  to  suppose. 


100  concerMng  tmeir  living  m  tenis. 

called  it  the  House  of  Gold,  because  gold  glittered  erery 
where  about  it."  He  adds,  "  that  there  was  an  inscrip- 
tion wrought  upon  the  cornice  of  the  antichamber,  which 
gave  it  the  appellation  of  the  throne  of  the  second  Solof- 
inon,  and  at  the  same  time  marked  out  the  year  of  its  con- 
struction.* 

This  account,  trhich  is  short  in  this  writer,  and  which  I 
hate  still  more  abridged,  furnishes  tis  with  materials  for 
several  remarks. 

It  shows  us,  in  the  first  place,  how  natural  it  is  to  the 
Eastern  people,  to  use  the  words  house  and  tcnf^as 
equivalent  terms  :  this  tent,  it  seems,  was  called  the  House 
of  Gold.  This  interchange  of  the  two  words  frequently 
appears  in  the  Old  Testament.  Thus  the  goodly  rai- 
ment of  !£sau,  which  was  left  in  the  custody  of  Rebekah, 
is  said  to  be  with  her  in  the  house,  Gen.  xxvii.  15,  which 
it  is  certain  were  kept  in  a  tent.  On  the  other  hand, 
when  Sheba,  the  son  of  Bichri,  a  Benjamite,  wanted  to 
Cause  the  people  to  Abandon  David,  he  blew  a  trumpet, 
crying.  To  your  tents,  O  Israel!  2  Sam.xx.  I;  though 
Israel  did  not  dwell  in  moveable  habitations  at  that  time, 
but  in  cities. 

In  the  next  place,  this  lent  was  called  the  House  of 
Gold,  not  that  it  was  wholly  made  of  gold,  but  because 
it  was  highly  ornamented  with  it.  This  teaches  us  how 
we  are  to  understand  the  houses  of  ivory,  and  the  golden 
city,  of  which  we  read  in  the  Scriptures.  The  houses  of 
ivoryf  appear  to  mean  houses?  richly  adorned  with  that 
precious  substance;  and  the  golden  city  J  means  the  city 
remarkable  for  its  being  richly  gilded  in  many  parts  of  it, 
oj  at  least  in  some  remarkable  places.^ 

•  Tome  i.  p.  20?.  f  ^^  ^l^-  ^-    *  Kings  xxii.  39.    Amos  iii.  15, 

t  Mentioned  Is.  xiv.  4. 

§  We  may  be  satisfied,  I  believe,  that  it  does  not  signify,  according  to 
the  marginal  translation,  exactress  of  gold  ;  for  however  truly  it  might 
have  been  so  described,  the  Chaldees  themselves  would  hardly  have  given 
it  such  an  appellation,  and  the  word  is  acknowledged  to  be  CUaldaio  ;  but 


<30NCjEBNING  ?|^IP  LIVING  IN  TENTS.  19| 

In  the  third  place  we  may  observe,  that  this  tent  is 
called  Throne:*  "  the  Throne  of  the  second  Solomon." 
This  shows  that  the  word  throne  sometimes  signifies  not 
the  royal  seat,  strirtly  speaking,  but  the  place  in  which 
that  seat  is  set.  It  is  used  in  thejsfume  ;pnlarged  sense  in 
the  Scriptures. 

It  is  even  probably  used  here,  in  the  fourth  place,  to 
signify  any  royal  abode,  even  those  where  no  seat  of  state 
ever  appeared.  For  nothing  leads  us  to  imagine  the  Per- 
fiian  throne,  strictly  speaking,  was  ever  brought  into  this 
majestic  tent.  So  when  the  men  of  Gideon  and  of  Mizpeh 
are  said  to  have  repaired  unto  the  throne  of  the  governor 
OH  this  side  the  river ^  Neh.  iii.  f,  nothing  more  may  be 
meant  than  that  they  repaired  to  over  against  the  palace  of 
this  great  man. 

?(iebuhr  has  made  a  similar  remark  to  the  first  ot  these, 
in  the  first  vol.  of  his  Voyages,f  where  he  tells  us,  "  a 
young  peasant  invited  him  to  go  with  him  to  bis  house^ 
to  drink  some  fresh  water,  which  had  been  taken  from  the 
spring  that  very  day  ;  and  he  did  it  with  so  much  cordi- 
ality, that  Niebuhr  says  he  should  not  have  refused  him, 
if  it  had  not  been  then  late.  *j<^  kheemeh,  is  properly  the 
name  of  a  tent  among  the  Arabs,  but  he  remarked  that 
the  Arabs  of  this  country  named  their  tents  iDUi  beetthait 
is  to  say,  their  house. 

they  might  glory  in  it  on  account  of  its  being  highly  omamenied  with  gold, 
in  some  of  its  more  remarkable  parts.  One  or  more  of  its  domes  or  tow- 
ers might  be  richly  gilded,  like  the  dome  and  two  towers  of  the  mosque 
built  over  the  supposed  ttunb  of  Ali,  of  which  Niebuhr  has  given  us  an  ac- 
«ount  in  the  second  of  his  three  tomes  of  Travels,  p.  223  ;  or  itmigjithave 
one  or  more  spires,  like  that  over  tbe  tomb  ofFatinia,  atf.'ora,  acity  of 
Persia,  which  Chaixlin  tells  us  consists  of  several  balls  of  different  magni' 
tudet,  and  if  of  solid  gold,  lis  the  iDhabitauis  affirm,  must  be  \>-orth  mit- 
Ilqju.    Tonxc  i  p.  20.4. 

"  f.  30J.  t  P.  ipO, 


192  CONCERNING  THEIR  LIVING  IN  TENTS. 


OBSERVATION  III. 

OF    PAVILIONS,     BOOTHS,     AND    SLEEPING    UNDER    THE 
SHADE   OF  TREESyt&C. 

The  word  ysiif  shapheer,  which-  we  translate  pavilion 
may,  it  is  very  likely,  excite  the  notion  of  something  su- 
perior to  a  common  tent ;  so  our  translators  use  that  term 
to  express  the  superb  tent  of  a  king  of  Babylon,  Jer.  xliii. 
10.  Hcy  Nebuchadnezzar,  shall  spread  his  royal  pavilion 
over  them,  A  mere  English  reader  will  be  surprised, 
perhaps,  when  he  is  told  that  the  word  nDD  succoth, 
translated  pavilions,  1  Kings  xx.  12,  16,  signifies  nothing 
more  than  booths  ;  and  more  still,  if  he  is  told  that  the 
sacred  historian  might,  possibly,  precisely  design  to  be 
understood,  when  so  describing  the  places  in  which  kings 
were  drinking. 

That  the  word  signifies  those  slight  temporary  de- 
fences from  the  heat,  which  are  formed  by  the  setting  up 
the  boughs  of  trees,  is  visible  by  what  is  said  Jonah  iv. 
5,  and  Neh.  viii.  16,  and  we  know  that  the  common  peo- 
ple of  the  East  frequently  sit  under  them  ;  but  it  may  be 
thought  incredible  that  princes  should  make  use  of  such 
as  the  term,  precisely  taken,  seems  to  imply.  And  it 
came  to  pass,  when  Benhadad  heard  this  message,  as  he 
was  drinkingy  he  and  the  kings  in  the  pavilions,  1  Kings 
XX.  12.  But  Benhadad  was  drinking  himself  drunk  in 
the  pavilions,  he  and  the  kings,  the  thirty  and  two  kings 
that  helped  him,  v.  16. 

In  the  margin  our  translators  have  put  the  word  tents  ; 
but  that  there  is  nothing  incredible  in  the  account,  if  we 
should  understand  the  prophetic  historian  as  meaning 
booths,  properly  speaking,  will  appear,  if  we  consider 
the  great  simplicity  of  ancient  times,  and  the  great  delight 
the  people  of  the  East  take  in  verdure,  and  in  eating  and 
drinking  under  the  shade  of  trees ;  especially  after  read- 


CONCERNING  THEIR  LIVING  IN  TENTS.  193 

ing  the  following  paragraph  of  Dr.  Chandler's  Travels  in 
the  Lesser  Asia : 

"  While  we  were  employed  on  the  theatre  of  Miletus, 
the  Aga  of  Suki,  son  in  law,  by  marriage  to  Elez  Oglu,* 
crossed  the  plain  toward  us,  attended  by  a  considerable 
train  of  domestics  and  ofHcers,  their  vests  and  their  tur- 
bans of  various  and  lively  colours,  mounted  on  long  tailed 
horses,  with  showy  trappings  and  furniture.  He  returri- 
ed  after  hawking,  to  Miletus;  and  we  went  to  visit  him, 
with  a  present  of  coffee  and  sugar;  but  we  were  told  that 
two  favourite  birds  had  flown  away,  and  that  he  was  vex- 
ed and  tired.  A  couch  was  prepared  for  him  beneath 
a  shed,  made  against  a  cottage,  and  covered  with  green 
boughs,  to  keep  off  the  sun.  He  entered  as  we  were 
standing  by,  and  fell  down  on  it  to  sleep,  without  taking 
any  notice  of  U3."f  A  very  mean  place,  an  European 
would  think,  to  be  prepared  for  the  reception  of  an  Aga 
that  made  s6  respectable  a  figure,  and  in  a  town,  which, 
though  ruinated,  still  had  several  cottages,  inhabited  by 
Turkish  families. J 

It  does  not  appear  incredible  then,  that  Benhadad,  and 
the  thirtytwo  petty  kings  that  attended  him,  might  actu- 
ally be  drinking  wine  beneath  such  green  sheds,  as  a 
Turkish  Aga,  of  considerable  distinction,  chose  to  sleep 
under,  rather  than  in  an  adjoining  cottage,  or  rather  than 
under  a  tent,  which  he  otherwise  might  have  carried  with 
him,  to  repose  under  when  he  chose  to  rest  himself.  Ori- 
ental manners  are  very  different  from  those  in  the  West. 

OBSERVATION  IV. 

THE    TURCOMANS    AND    THEIR    MANNER    OF    LITE. 

Abraham  Is  described,  on  a  particular  occasion,  as 
sitting  at  the  door  of  his  lent,  in    the   heat  of  the  day, 

•  A  Turkish  officer  of  great  power  and  extensive  corainaod  in  that  coun- 
try, iligiiificd  with  the  title  of  Musulcra,  i».  lOR. 

t  P.  U9.  »  1'.  \i^>- 

VOL.  I.  25 


194  CONCERNING  THEIR  LIVING  IN  TENTS. 

Gen.  xvili.  1,  and  from  Dr.  Chandler's  account,  it  ap- 
pears that  those  that  lead  a  pastoral  life  in  the  East,  at 
this  daj,  frequently  place  themselves  in  a  similar  situ- 
ation. 

"  At  ten  minutes  after  ten,  in  the  morning,  we  had  in 
view,  saj's  this  writer,  several  fine  bays,  and  a  plain  full  of 
booths,  with  the  Turcomans  sitting  by  the  doors,  under 
sheds  resembling  porticoes  ;  or  by  shady  trees,  surrounded 
with  flocks  of  goats."* 

This  gentleman  frequently  met  with  these  people  in  his 
journies  in  A«ia :  sometimes  he  describes  them  as  living 
in  black  booths,f  which  I  should  suppose,  means  tents  of 
black  goats  hair  cloth,  like  the  tents  of  the  Arabs ; 
at  other  times,  he  evidently  means  habitations  form- 
ed of  boughs  of  trees:  thus  he  says,  p.  184.  "We 
came  to  a  level  green,  occupied  by  Turcomans.  Their 
flocks  and  their  cattle  were  feeding  round  the  scattered 
booths;  and  cotton,  recently  gathered  from  the  pods,  was 
exposed  on  the  ground  to  dry,  or  on  the  tops  of  the 
sheds,  which  are  flat  and  covered  with  boughs. "J 

As  these  people  seem  to  change  their  habitations,  as 
the  weather,  or  their  fancies  dispose  them,  it  is  not  im- 
possible that  Abraham  might  dwell  in  both  these  kinds  of 
habitations,  and  might  be  sitting  in  the  portico  of  one  of 
these  extemporaneous  structures,  formed  of  the  boughs  of 
trees,  as  the  word  rendered  feni  is  used  in  a  large  sense  in 
Scripture ;  but  if  not,  if  it  was  a  tent  strictly  speaking, 
he  might  be  sitting  under  the  outskirts  of  his  tent,  near 
the  door,  to  enjoy  the  fresh  air,  as  Chandler  saw  the  Tur- 
coman shepherds  sitting  under  their  sheds,  watching  their 
cattle. 

It  was  not  the  hottest  part  of  the  day,  when  Chandler 
saw  these  people  sitting  at  the  doors  of  their  booths,  it 
was  soon  after  ten  in  the  morning ;  and  when  Abraham 
was  sitting  at  his  tent  door,  it  might  be  nearly  at  the  same 
hour.     Travelling   in  the  hottest  part  of  all  might  have 

*  r.  180,  181,  Travels  in  Asia  Minor.  f  See  p.  X12. 

*  This  being  some  time  in  October. 


CONCERNING  THEIR  LIVING  IN  TENTS.  195 

been  dang;erous,  and  according  to  the  modern  customs  of 
those  countries  Abraham  then  would  have  been  retired 
to  rest. 

According  to  this  description,  Abraham  bad  not  far  to 
go  to  fetch  a  calf;  his  cattle  were  feeding  by  his  tent. 


OBSERVATION  V. 

OF  TBE  BEDOUIN  ARABS,  AND  THEIR  MANNER  OF  FEED- 
ING THEIR  FLOCKS. 

Our  people,  who  are  extremely  watchful  over  their 
public  pastures  to  guard  them  from  intruders,  and  so 
read/  to  go  to  law  with  their  next  neighbours  about 
their  right  to  common,  or  the  number  of  beasts  they  shall 
feed  there,  may  think  it  very  strange  that  Abraham 
and  Lot,  the  Kenites  and  Rechabites,  should  have  been 
permitted  to  move  up  and  down,  and  feed  their  flocks 
and  herds  unmolested,  in  inhabited  countries  as  well  as  in 
deserts. 

But  this  ancient  custom  still  continues  in  Palestine, 
which,  depopulated  as  it  is,  probably  has  as  many  inhabit- 
ants in  its  towns,  as  it  had  in  the  days  of  Abraham.  Nor 
is  this  peculiar  to  Palestine;  there  are  many  that  live  in 
Barbary,  and  other  places,  in  the  same  manner.  And  as 
the  Kenites  and  Rechabites  lived  in  Palestine  in  tent?, 
and  pastured  their  cattle  there  without  molestation  when 
the  country  was  very  populous,  so  Maillet  assures  us,* 
that  great  numbers  of  these  people  that  live  intents,  come 
into  Egypt  itself  to  pasture  their  cattle,  a  very  populous 
country,  and  indeed  the  Holland  of  the  Levant.  As  I  do 
not  know  his  account  has  ever  appeared  in  English,  I  will 
here  give  it  to  the  reader: 

"  Besides  these  native  inhabitants  of  Egypt,  who   have 
fixed  habitations,  and  compose  those  numerous  and  popu 

•Letl.  p.  24,  25, 


196  CONCERNING  THEIR  LIVING  IN  TENTS. 

Ions  villages  of  which  I  have  spoken  above,  there  are 
also  ill  that  part  of  the  country  that  is  next  the  deserts, 
and  even  often  in  those  that  border  on  the  Nile,  a  sort  of 
wandering  people,  who  dwell  in  tents,  and  change  their 
habitation,  as  the  want  of  pasture  or  the  variety  of  the 
seasons  lead  them.  These  people  are  called  Bedouin 
Arabs;  and  we  may  reckon  there  are  above  two  millions 
of  them  in  Egypt.  Some  keep  on  the  mountains,  and  at  a 
distance  from  the  cities  and  villages,  but  always  in  places 
where  it  is  easy  for  them  to  have  water.  Others  pitch 
their  tents,  which  are  very  low  and  poor,  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  places  that  are  inhabited,  where  they  permit 
Ihem  for  a  small  recompense  to  feed  their  flocks.  They 
even  give  them  up  some  lands  to  cultivate  for  their  own 
use,  only  to  avoid  having  any  misunderstanding  with  peo- 
ple, who  can  do  a  great  deal  of  mischief  without  any  dan- 
ger of  having  it  returned  upon  them.  For  to  avoid  every 
thing  of  this  kind,  they  have  nothing  to  do  but  to  pene- 
trate a  day's  journey  into  the  deserts,  where,  by  their  ex- 
treme frugality,  and  by  the  knowledge  they  have  of  places 
of  water,  they  can  subsist  several  months  without  great 
difficultj'^.  There  is  not  a  more  pleasing  sight  in  the  world, 
than  the  beholding  in  the  months  of  November,  Decem- 
ber, and  January,  those  vast  meadows,  where  the  grass, 
almost  as  high  as  a  man,  is  so  thick,  that  a  bullock  laid  in 
it  has  enough  ofit  without  rising,  within  his  reach,  to  feed 
on  for  a  whole  day,  all  covered  with  habitations  and  tents, 
with  people  and  herds.  And  indeed  it  is  at  this  time  of 
the  year  that  the  Bedouins  flock  iiilo  Egypt,  from  three 
or  four  hundred  leagues  distance,  in  order  to  feed  their 
camels  and  horses  there.  The  tribute  which  they  re" 
quire  of  them  for  granting  this  permission,  they  pay  with 
the  produce  of  some  manufactures  of  their  wool,  or  with 
some  sheep,  which  they  sell  as  well  as  their  lambs,  or 
some  young  camels,  which  they  dispose  of.  As  to  what 
remains,  accustomed  as  they  are  to  extreme  frugality, 
they  live  on  a  little,  and  a  very  small  matter  is  sufficient 
for  their  support.     After  having  spent  a  certain  space  of 


CONCERNING  THEIR  LIVING  IN  TENTS.  197 

time  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  Nile,  they  retire  into 
the  deserts,  from  whence  by  routes,  with  which  they  are 
acquainted,  they  pass  into  other  regions,  to  dwell  there 
in  like  manner  some  months  of  the  year,  till  the  return  of 
the  usual  season  calls  them  back  to  Egypt.'* 

We  see  here  that  they  are  at  liberty  to  feed  their  cat- 
tle, not  only  in  the  deserts  adjoining  to  cultivated  coun- 
tries, but  in  those  countries  themselves,  and  in  those  that 
are  full  of  people  too.  The  commons  then  of  these  coun- 
tries are  not,  cannot  be  appropriated  to  this  or  that  vil- 
lage, this  or  that  district^  but  lie  open  to  all,  nor  have 
they  any  notion  of  our  rights  of  commoning.*  It  was  so 
anciently  in  Israel,  as  appears  by  the  case  of  the  Kenites 
and  Rechabites;  as  well  as  by  that  ancient  constitution 
among  the  Jews,  ascribed  by  them  to  Joshua,  and  which 
is  the  first  of  ten  that  are  supposed  to  have  been  estab- 
lished by  him,  by  which  it  was  lawful  to  feed  a  flock  in 
the  woods,  every  where,  without  any  regard  to  the  divi- 
sion of  the  lands  between  the  tribes,  so  that  those  of  the 
tribe  of  Napthali  might  feed  a  flock  in  the  woods  of  the 
tribe  of  Judah.  These  usages  are  extremely  contrary  to 
ours;  the  observing  therefore  that  they  continue  still  in 
full  force  in  the  East,  may  be  requisite  to  engage  us  to 
admit  such  suppositions,  in  settling  the  Old  Testament 
history,  as  we  might  otherwise  hardly  be  willing  to  allow. 

OBSERVATION  VI. 

ARABS  HAVE  NO  PLACES  OF  SHELTER  FOR  THEIR  CAT- 
TLE nv  NIGHT. 

Though  they  have  tents  for  their  own  dwelling,  we  can- 
not suppose  the  Arabs  have  many  conveniences  for  shel- 
tering their  cattle,  but  that  in  common  they  are  left  ex- 
posed to  all  weathers. 

When  the  Prophet  Ezekiel  threatens  the  Ammonites, 
that  Rabbah,  their  capital,  should  be  a  stable  for  camels, 

•  Vide  Rdandi  Palest.  p.2Cl. 


}98  CONCERNING  THEIR  LIVING  IN  TENTS. 

we  are  not  lo  imagine  the  Arabs  were  obliged  to  have 
aucb  places  for  these  more  tender  animals.  Sir  J.  Char- 
din,  in  a  note  on  that  place,*  assures  us  of  the  confrarj^: 
«  As  thej  give  camels  to  eat  on  the  ground,  he  (ells  us, 
and  do  not  litter  them,  they  want  no  buildings  for  them. 
And  accordingly  as  camels  feed  in  very  barren  and  dry 
places,  where  only  nettles  and  thorns  grow,  which  fhey 
eat,  and  thi^les  and  heath,  and  remain  abroad  in  rain  and 
snow,  they  are  afraid  of  nothing  for  them  but  mire,  where 
they  slip,  and  plunge,  and  fall,  in  which  case  they  arise 
again  with  difficulty." 

It  is  true,  Dr.  Shaw  supposesf  the  cattle  of  these  coun- 
tries would  be  much  more  numerous  than  they  are,  if 
they  had  some  little  shelter  in  winter  ;  but  as  it  is,  they 
are  in  great  numbers,  and  we  find  the  camel  itself  will 
pass  through  their  winters  very  well  without  such  conve- 
liiences,  from  what  Sir  J.  Chardin  has  told  us. 

Ruins  are  indeed  not  unfrequenlly  made  use  of  in  these 
countries  for  the  sheltering  their  caltle,J  and  we  may  very 
probably  suppose  Ezekiel  thought  of  this  management] 
when  he  describes  Rabbah  as  about  to  be  made  a  place 
of  camels,  which  is  all  the  original  means,  I  apprehend^ 
the  word  being  by  no  means  so  determinate  as  the  En- 
glish term  stable,  and  may  as  well  be  understood  to  sig- 
nify, that  camels  should  eat  the  vegetables  which  should 
grow  in  the  place  where  Rabbah  then  stood,  as  that  they 
should  make  use  of  the  ruins  of  that  city  for  shelter  dur- 
ing the  night,  or  in  winter,  for  their  camels,  which  the 
term  stable  seems  to  imply.  So  it  is  translated  pasfwre^, 
Psal.  xxiii.  2. 

OBSERVATION  VII. 

OF     THE     RECHABITES,      BARBARY    ARABS,     AND     ITINE- 
RANT   VILLAGES    OF    MOORS. 

But  they  not  only  feed  their  flocks  and  their  herds,  it 
seems,  they  sometimes  also  sow  corn  in  these  lands,  ac- 
cording to  Maillet. 

*  Ezek.  XX.  5.      f  P.  169.        ^  Manndrell,  p,  19,  and  many  other  authors. 


CONCERNING  THEIR  LIVING  IN  TENTS.  igj 

This,  hofeever,  is  not  so  readily  admitted  as  the  other. 
In  Barbarj,  indeed,  it  appears  to  be  very  common;  but 
tfcat  it  is  not  so  agreeable  to  the  people  of  Egypt,  we  may 
learn  From  what  Capt.  Norden  relates  of  a  Bedouin  in 
Egypt,  whose  name  was  Hasser  Abuaffi,  who  dwelt  near 
the  mounlarns  opposite  to  Monfaluut,  and  sowed  and 
planted  there,  levying  a  tythe  also  upon  the  crops  of  his 
subjects,  which  was  without  the  permission  of  the  govern- 
ment of  Cairo,  and  occasioned  a  report  to  be  spread  every 
time  that  the  Senschiak  went  to  Monfaluut,  that  it  was 
determined  to  make  war  upon  him,  though  the  affair  was 
always  accommodated  by  means  of  some  purses,  or  other 
presents  that  he  made.* 

May  we  not  from  hence  conjecture,  that  the  Recha- 
bites  did  at  first  conduct  themselves  as  the  Arabs  of  Bar- 
barynowdo,  and  some  of  the  Bedouins  of  Egypt,  but 
that  some  misunderstandings,  of  great  consequence,  aris- 
ing hence  in  process  of  time  between  tfaem  and  the  chil- 
dren of  Israel,  and  which  were  owing  to  wine,  Jonadab, 
who  was  then  the  sbeekh  or  head  of  that  family,  solemn- 
ly charged  tbem  for  the  future  never  to  drink  wine,  which 
had  been  the  immediate  cause  of  this  terrible  feud,  not 
to  attempt  to  sow  any  lands,  which  had  been  the  more  re- 
mote occasion  of  it,  but  to  content  themselves  with  feed- 
ing their  flocks  and  herds  in  the  common  pastures  of  that 
country  j  that  so  none  of  tbese  animosities  might  for  time 
to  come  arise,  and  the  umbrage  they  had  lately  giv- 
en the  Israelites  might  be  forgotten;  which  injunction  of 
their  chief  they  had  sacredly  obeyed  to  the  days  of  the 
Prophet  Jeremiah  ? 

What  may  appear  more  extraordinary  still  is,  that  these 
Bedouins,  who  do  sow,  are  looked  upon  to  be  very  saga- 
cious in  the  choice  of  thfe  lands  they  cultivate  :  so  the  au- 
thor of  the  history  of  the  Piratical  States  of  Barbary  tells 
U8,f  who  observes,  that  the  Moors  of  that  country  are  di- 
vided into  tribes  like  the  Arabians,  and  like  them  dwell  in 

"  Vol.  ii.  p.  32.  I  P.  44,  45. 


200  CONCERNING  THEIR  LIVING  IN  TENTS. 

tents  formed  into  ilinerant  villages ;  that  "  these  wanderers 
farm  lands  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  towns,  sow  and  cultivate 
them,  paying  their  rent  with  the  produce,  such  as  fruits, 
corn,  wax,  &c.  They  are  very  skilful  in  choosing  the 
most  advantageous  soils  for  every  season,  and  very  care- 
ful to  avoid  the  Turkish  troops,  the  violence  of  the  one 
little  suiting  the  simplicity  of  the  other."  It  appears 
from  Dr.  Shaw,  that  those  whom  the  author  of  this  histo- 
ry of  the  Piratical  States  calls  Moors,  and  describes  as 
like  the  Arabians,  are  in  truth  Bedouins,  or  Arabs.* 

One  would  think  that  Isaac  possessed  the  like  sagacity, 
when  he  sowed  in  the  land  of  Gerar,  and  received  that 
year  an  hundred  fold,  Gen.  xxvi.  12.  It  should  seem 
too,  from  the  circumstances  of  the  story,  that  those  lands 
Isaac  cultivated  were  like  those  of  these  Moors,  hired  of 
the  fixed  inhabitants  of  the  country ;  there  would  other- 
wise have  been  no  pretence  for  the  king  of  Gerar  to  have 
said  to  him,  Go  from  us,  for  thou  art  mightier  than  ne, 
V.  16.  To  have  said  to  a  person  of  Isaac's  power,  who 
cultivated  lands  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Gerar,  but  to 
which  Gerar  had  no  right,  depart,  would  have  been  an  in- 
solence which  that  king  would  hardly  have  ventured  up- 
on ;  but  if  the  right  of  farming  these  lands  depended  on 
agreements  made  with  Gerar,  the  king  of  that  country 
might,  after  reaping  the  crop,  gracefully  enough  refuse 
his  permission  a  second  time,  and  assign  this  as  the  reason. 

OBSERVATION  VIII. 

ROBBING    THE    SEEDSMEN     WHEN     SOWING    THEIR    CORN 
IN    PALESTINE. 

Inconsistent  then  as  this  flitting  kind  of  life  seems  to 
be  with  agriculture,  the  more  peaceful  Bedouins  of  these 
times  still  practise  it,  as  the  Patriarchs  sometimes  did  of 
old;  but  there  are  other  Arabs,  that  rather  supply  them- 
selves with  corn  by  violence  than  by  tillage, 

*  P.  220,  Sec. 


CONCERNING  THEIR  LIVING  IN  TENTS.  201 

The  account  prefixed  to  (hose  noble  Ruins  of  Balbec, 
published  in  1757,  mentions  one  kind  of  depredation  I 
never  before  took  notice  of,  and  which  deserves  particular 
attention  :  it  is  the  robbing  the  husbandmen  of  their  seed 
corn.  The  vallej  in  which  Balbec  stands,  though  very 
rich,  and  capable  of  being  made  a  most  delightful  spot, 
produces  very  Utile  wood  ;  and  indeed  "  though  shade," 
says  the  ingenious  publisher  of  these  drawings,"^  "be  so 
essential  an  article  of  Oriental  luxury,  yet  few  plantations 
of  trees  are  seen  in  Turkey,  the  inhabitants  being  discour- 
aged from  labours  which  produce  such  distant  and  preca- 
rious enjoyment,  in  a  country  where  even  the  annual 
fruits  of  their  industry  are  uncertain.  In  Palestine  we 
have  often  seen  the  husbandman  sowing,  accompanied  by 
an  armed  friend,  to  prevent  his  being  robbed  of  the  seed." 

The  oveiTunning  desolate  countries  by  the  Arabs  is 
mentioned  in  Ezek.  xxv.  4  ;  and  their  lying  in  wait  for 
prey,  Jer.  iii.  2 ;  and  this  robbing  the  husbandman  of  his 
seed,  seems  also  to  have  been  an  ancient  practice  of  theirs, 
and  to  have  been  referred  to  Ps.  cxxvi.  5,  6,  and  made 
an  image,  by  the  Psalmist,  of  the  happy  issue  of  the  first 
essay  of  the  Jews  to  repeople  their  country  :  for  surely  it 
is  much  more  natural  to  suppose  these  verses  refer  to  vio. 
lences  of  this  sort,  than  to  imagine  with  many  interpjeters, 
indeed  all,  for  aught  I  know,  that  have  touched  on  this 
circumstance,  that  they  allude  to  a  countryman's  anxiety 
\vho  sows  his  corn  in  a  very  scarce  time,  and  is  afraid  of 
the  failure  of  the  next  crop. 

The  Israelites  that  returned  from  Babylon,  upon  the 
proclamation  of  Cyrus,  were  nndoubledly  in  similar  cir- 
cumstances to  husbandmen  sowing  their  corn,  amidst  sur- 
rounding encampments  of  oppressive  Arabs.  Their  re- 
building their  towns  and  their  temple  resembled  a  time  of 
sowing,  for  from  these  things  they  were  willing  to  hope 
for  a  great  increase  of  people  ;  but  they  that  continued  in 
Babylon  had  reason  to  be  jcalou!}  that  the  neighbouring 

•  P.  5, 
VOL.  I.  28 


203  CONCERNING  THEIR  IJVING  IN  TENTS; 

n&fions  woukl  defeat  these  efforts,  and  destroy  these  rising 
settlements.     A  sacred  historian  expressly  mentions  such 
difficulties :   JVhen  Sanbullat,  and  Tobiah,  and  the  Ara- 
bians, a^id   the  Ammonites,  and  the  Ashdodites,  hcdrd 
that  the  walls  of  Jerusalem   were  made  up,  and  that  the 
breaches  began  to  be  stopped,  then  they  were  very  wroth, 
and  conspired  all  of  them  together,  to  come  and  to  fight 
against   Jerusalem,   and   to  hinder  it.     Neh.  iv.  7,   8. 
Nor  was  it  difficult  to  fors«e  these  oppositions:  the  Arabs 
had  undoubtedly   pastured  their  flocks  and   herds,  and 
pitched  their  tents  all  over  Judea  when  left  desolate,  and 
perhaps  others  of  the  neighbouring  nations  had  seized  upon 
some  of  the  dispeopled   districts,  that  lay  most  conven- 
ient for  Ihem  ;  it  was  then  the  interest  of  the  Arabs,  and 
of  such  other  nations,   to   discourage  as  much  as  possible 
the  return  of  Israel   in  any  numbers  into  the  country  of 
their  fathers.     In  opposition  to  this  jealousy  the  Prophet 
expresses  his  hope,  perhaps  predicts,   that  there  would 
be    a    happy    issue   of    these    beginnings    to   repeople 
their  country.     "  Make  the  people  of  our  captivity  to  re- 
turn, O  Lord!  into   their   country,   like  the  streams  of 
the  south,  to  cause  these  deserts   to  flourish  again  ;  let 
them  be  persuaded,  that  though  these  expectations  of  re- 
peopling  their  country  with  an  anxiety  like  that  of  a  poor 
husbandman,  that  goes   forth  weeping,  for  fear  he  should 
be  robbed  of  his   seed,  should  for  the  present  fail,  they 
shall  feel  a  joy  hereafter  Thke  his,  when  he  brings  back  his 
sheaves  with  rejoicing,  in  the  thorough  re-establishment  of 
Israel  in  Judea,  so  as  to  have  no  cause  to  apprehend  any 
thing  from  the  surrounding  nations." 

OBSERVATION  IX. 

nOBBING     THE     HARVEST    J     SOWING     DIFFERENT    KINDS 
OF    GRAIN    IN    THE    WINTER. 

If  they  rob  the  countryman  of  his  seed  corn,  much 
more  is  it  to  be  thought  they  often  seize  on  the  corn,  and 
other  fruits  of  the  earth,  when  growing  ripe. 


CONCERNING  THEIR  LIVING  IN  TENTS.  208 

So  Egmont  and  Heyman,  in  their  travels  in  Galilee^ 
found  a  large  plain  bordering  on  the  lake  of  Tiberias, 
which  was  sown  with  rice,  but  to  which  tliey  perceived 
the  Arabians  had  already  paid  a  visil,  though  great  part 
of  (he  corn  was  not  then  ripe.* 

But  what  I  would  rather  observe  here  is,  that  they 
treat  the  fruit  trees  after  the  same  manner,  and  oblige  the 
inhabitants  of  these  countries  to  gather  their  fruits  before 
they  are  ripe,  when  they  apprehend  any  danger  from 
these  mischievous  neighbours.  So  Maillet  ascribes  the 
alteration  for  the  worse,  that  is  found  in  the  wine  of  a 
province  in  Egypt,  which  formerly  produced  wine  of  that 
excellence,  as  to  be  esteemed  the  third  best  of  all  those 
that  were  drank  at  Rome,  to  the  precipitation,  in  a  great 
measure,  with  which  they  now  gather  the  grapes. f  The 
cause  of  this,  which  occasions  so  bad  an  effect,  he  gives 
an  account  of  in  the  following  page,  saying,  "  that  this 
province  of  Fioum  is  surrounded  with  Arabs,  who  fre- 
quently make  excursions  into  it,  especiallj'  in  the  season 
in  which  fruits  begin  to  ripen,  which  that  district  produces 
in  great  abundance.  It  is  to  save  them  from  the  depre- 
dations of  the  Arabs,  that  the  inhabitants  of  this  country 
gather  them  before  they  come  to  matiirity,  sending  theiu 
to  Cairo,  where  they  find  no  difficulty  to  dispose  of  them, 
though  they  are  not  ripe." 

It  is  this  circumstance,  I  imagine,  that  must  explain 
the  passage  of  the  Prophet, J  Behold^  the  day  is  come, 
saith  the  Lord,  that  the  ploughman  shall  overtake  the 
reaper,  and  the  treader  of  grapes  him  that  soweth  seed, 
and  the  mountains  shall  drop  sweet  wine,  and  all  the  hills 
shall  melt.  That  is,  the  days  shall  come  when  the  grapes 
shall  not  be  gathered,  as  they  were  wont  before  to  be,  in 
a  state  of  immaturity,  for  fear  of  Arabs  or  other  destroy- 
ing nations,  but  they  shall  be  suffered  to  hang  even  till 
the  time  of  ploughing,  so  perfect  shall  be  the  security  of 
those  times. 

*  Vol.  ii.  p.  37.  t  I-ct,  8.  (I.  204,  295.  i  Ainos  ix.  \}}. 


204  CONCERNING  THEIR  LIVING  IN  TENTS. 

Tbis  explanation  removes  the  difficulty  that  might  oth- 
erwise rise  here  :  for  the  rains  falling  in  the  beginning  of 
November  in  the  Holy  Land,  and  the  sowing  following 
immediately  after,  what  would  there  be  astonishing  in  the 
treader  of  grapes  overtaking  or  meeting  with  him  that 
soweth  seed,  since  the  travels  of  Egmont  and  Heyman^^' 
expressly  affirm,  that  the  vintage  of  Aleppo  lasts  from  the 
15th  of  September,  to  the  same  day  of  November.  And 
I  have  elsewhere  shown,!  ^^^^  ^^^  vegetable  productions 
of  Judea,  Aleppo,  and  Barbary,  are  nearly  contempora- 
ry. It  is  certain,  that  nothing,  according  to  those  trav- 
ellers, is  more  common  at  Aleppo,  than  this  running  of 
the  vintage  and  sowing  season  into  one,  since  in  the  same 
page  that  they  affirm  that  the  vintage  lasts  to  the  15th  of 
November,  they  say,  the  sowing  season  begins  there  to- 
ward the  close  of  October,  and  lasts  all  November. 

The  grape,  however,  ripens  much  sooner:  for  Dr. 
Shaw,  who  tells  us,  agreeably  to  Egmont  and  Heyman's 
account,  that  in  Barbary  the  grape  is  ready  for  the  vin- 
tage in  September,  tells  us  also  that  it  ripens  toward  the 
latter  end  of  July  ;J  and  consequently,  when  surrounded 
with  Arabs,  Judea,  through  fear  of  them,  became  obliged 
to  hurry  on  the  vintage,  it  might  be  over  some  months  be- 
fore the  sowing  time  began,  but  the  wine  made  in  this 
manner  could  not  be  sweet  wine.  On  the  other  hand, 
though  the  grapes  of  Judea  might  be  sufficiently  ripened 
by  the  vintage  in  common  by  September,  yet  it  being  very 
well  known,§  that  their  hanging  long  on  the  trees  makes 
the  wine  much  richer*  more  generous,  and  sweet ;  the  de- 
laying the  time  of  treading  grapes  there  till  the  time  of 
sowing,  perfectly  well  answers  the  latter  part  of  the  verse, 
And  the  mountains  shall  drop  sweet  wine.     Answerable 

•  V.  ii.  p.  348.  t  Ch.  1.  Obs.  xxi.  *  P.  146. 

§  Vojr.  le  Diet,  des  Drogues,  par  Mons.  Lemery  dans  I'Art.  Vinum. 
*'  Qaand  on  vcut  faire  le  vin  muscat,  on  laisse  bien  mcurir  le  raisin  mus- 
cat,  puis  on  en  tord  la  grape  sur  la  vignc,  afin  qu'elle  ne  reeoire  plus  de 
nourriture,  et  que  ees  grains  soient  fanes  oo  vn  pen  rotis  par  I'ardenr  d» 
Soleii,  &c. 


CONCERNING  THEIR  LIVING  IN  TENTS.  205 

to  this,  la  Roque  found  the  monks  of  Canubin  in  Mount 
Lebanon  absent  from  their  monastery,  for  the  most  part* 
and  busied  in  their  vintage,*  when  he  was  there  the  end 
of  October,  or  beginning  of  November,  who  are  noted  for 
the  richness  and  excellence  of  their  wines.f 

And  as  the  treader  of  grapes^  was  to  overtake  him 
that  sowed  seedy  so  also  was  the  ploughman,  according  to 
the  Prophet,  to  overtake  the  reaper :  that  is,  I  appre- 
hend,  no  fear  of  approaching  enemies  should  engage  the 
ploughman  to  discontinue  his  employment,  but  he  should 
go  on  cultivating  the  ground,  in  the  pleasurable  hope  of 
enjoying  all  the  various  productions  of  the  field  till  har- 
vest began. 

The  harvest,  I  have  already  observed,^  may  be  reck- 
oned to  begin  about  the  middle  of  May,  N.  S.  the  plough- 
man at  Aleppo  begins  his  work  about  the  latter  end  of 
September,  sowing  his  earliest  wheat  about  the  middle  of 
October,  and  as  the  frosts  are  never  severe  enough  to 
prevent  his  ploughing  all  winter,  so  they  continue  there 
to  sow  ail  sorts  of  grain  to  the  end  of  January,  and  bar- 
ley sometimes  after  the  middle  of  February  ,$  and  this,  I 
think,  according  to  O.  S.  and  consequently  barley  is,  ac- 
cording to  this  account,  sown  in  the  end  of  February,  N.  S. 
or  the  beginning  of  March. 

The  work  of  the  ploughman  does  not  terminate  upon 
sowing  barley  in  the  Holy  Land.  Mr.  Maundrell,  who 
left  Jerusalem  April  15th  O.  S.  and  consequently  the 
26th,  as  we  now  reckon,  found  the  country  people  every 
where  at  plough  in  the  fields  then,  in  order  to  sow  cot- 
ton.^ This  ploughing  made  a  near  approach  to  their  har- 
vest. 

According  to  Russell,(|  a  great  variety  of  vegetables 
is  sown  in  the  eastern  fields,  some  of  which  are  sown  very 
late  in  the  spring  as  well  as  cotton  ;  water  melons  in  par- 

•  Voy.  de  Syrie,  tome  1.  p.  54.  f  ?•  55,  ♦  Ch.  1.  Obs.  xxi. 

$  Russell,  Vol.  i.  p.  7.%  f  P.  UO.  |  Val.  i.  p.  74. 


20«  CONCERNING  THEIR  LIVING  IN  TENTS. 

ticular,  and  other  vegetables  of  that  tribe,*  which  are  so 
cooling,  and  consequently  of  such  importance  to  render 
life  agreeable  in  those  hot  countries. 

These  pleasing  expectations  were,  however,  often  dis- 
appointed, and  this  latter  cultivation  of  their  grounds  pre- 
vented by  the  irruption  of  enemies,  who  broke  into  their 
country  before  their  barley  and  wheat  were  ripe,  and  con- 
sequently before  their  harvest  began.  So  we  find  the 
Midianites,  with  the  Amalekites,  and  the  rest  of  the  chil- 
dren of  the  East,  came  up  against  the  Israelites,  and  en- 
camped against  them,  and  destroyed  the  increase  of  the 
earth,  and  left  no  sustenance  to  Israel,  Judges  vi.  3,  4. 
Israel,  then,  instead  of  going  on  with  the  cultivation  of 
their  grounds,  withdrew  into  dens  on  the  mountains,  and 
caves,  and  strong  holds,  v.  2  ;  and  threshed  what  little 
corn  they  could  save  out  of  their  hands  by  stealth,  v.  11, 

Amos  then  speaks  of  the  perfect  quiet  and  freedom 
from  disturbances  in  that  country,  in  those  days  to  which 
the  prophecy  relates ;  whereas  all  commentators,  so  far 
as  1  have  observed,  suppose  this  passage  either  expresses 
the  temperateness  of  the  seasons  only,  or  the  abundance 
of  the  productions  of  the  earth  in  those  times,  neither  of 
which  is  the  complete  thought  of  the  Prophet,  though 
they  may  be  both  indirectly  involved  in  his  words.  The 
following  words  of  building  the  waste  cities,  and  inhab- 
iting thenif  planting  vineyards  and  drinking  the  wine  of 
them,  making  gardens  and  eating  the  fruit  thereof,  per- 
fectly agree  with  this  explanation.  But  it  very  ill  suits 
vith  the  opinion  of  those  that  suppose  abundance  only  is 
intended,  that  the  first  part  of  the  verse  in  that  view  on. 
ly  speaks  of  abundance  of  work,  long  continued  plough- 
ing, and  says  nothing  of  the  plenty  of  the  crop ;  for 
which  reason,  I  suppose,  it  was,  that  the  Septuagint,  not 
entering  into  the  view  of  the  prophecy,  translated  the 
words  the  time  of  harvest  shall  overtake  the  vintage,  Sec. 

*  See  Pocooke's  Travels,  Vol.  ii.  p.  164. 


CONCERNING  THEIR  LIVING  IN  TENTS.  £0? 


OBSERVATION  X. 

ARABS  LIE  IN  WAIT  FOR  TRAVELLERS  AND  CARAVANS, 
IN  ORDER  TO  ROB  THEM. 

Great  is  the  attention  with  which  the  Arabs  watch 
for  passengers,  whom  they  may  spoil, 

Jeremiah  refers  to  this  watching  of  theirs,  ch.  iii.  2,  In 
the  ways  hast  thou  sat  for  them,  as  the  Arabians  in  the 
wilderness. 

Every  one  knows  the  general  intention  of  the  Prophet, 
but  the  MS.  of  Chardin  has  given  so  strong  and  lively  a 
description  of  the  eagerness  that  attends  their  looking  out 
for  prey,  that  1  am  persuaded  my  readers  will  be  pleased 
with  it.  "  Thus  the  Arabs  wait  for  caravans  with  the 
most  violent  avidity,  looking  about  them  on  all  sides, 
raising  themselves  up  on  their  horses,  running  here  and 
there  to  see  if  they  cannot  perceive  any  smoke,  or  dust, 
or  tracks  on  the  ground,  or  any  other  marks  of  people 
passing  along.'* 

OBSERVATION  XI. 

\ 

ARABS    RIDE     INTO     HOtlSES    IN    ORDER    TO    BOB    THEM. 

Among  other  violences  of  the  Arabs,  that  of  riding 
into  the  houses  of  those  they  mean  toharrass,  is  not  one  of 
the  least  observable ;  the  rather,  as  it  seems  to  be  refer- 
red to  in  the  Scriptures. 

To  prevent  this  insult,  and  the  mischief  these  Arabs 
might  do  them,  Thevenot  tells  us,*  that  the  door  of 
the  house  in  which  the  French  merchants  lived  at  Rama, 
was  not  three  feet  high,  and  that  all  the  doors  of  that  town 
are  equally  low,  to  hinder  the  Arabs  from  entering  their 
houses  on  horseback ;  and   afterward  speaks  of  a  large 

*  Part  1.  p.  lis. 


20g  CONCERNING  THEIR  LIVING  IN  TENTS. 

door  going  into  the  church  at  Bethlehem,  which  has  been 
walled  up,  and  only  a  wicket  left  in  it  three  feet  high,  and 
two  feet  wide,  to  hinder  the  Arabs  from  entering  the 
church  with  their  horses.  Other  authors  have  made  the 
like  observations.* 

Now  may  not  that  passage  in  the  Proverbs  refer  to  this. 
He  that  exalteth  his  gate,  seeketh  destruction,  or  calami- 
ty ?  ch.  xvii.  19.  The  Rojal  Preacher  elsewhere  says. 
Pride  goeth  before  destruction,  and  an  haughty  spirit 
before  a  fall ;  and  again.  Before  destruction,  the  heart 
of  man  is  haughty,  and  before  honor  is  humility  ;  which 
seem  to  be  the  same  thought  in  general  with  that  of  the 
text  I  am  considering :  if  then  he  thought  fit  to  come  to 
particulars,  why  is  the  height  of  the  gate  of  an  haughty 
person  mentioned,  rather  than  other  circumstances  of  mag- 
nificence in  a  building?  rather  than  the  wideness  of  the 
bouse,  the  airiness  of  the  rooms,  the  cutting  out  windows, 
the  cedar  ceilings,  and  the  vermillion,  which  are  all  men- 
tioned by  Jeremiah  as  pieces  of  grandeur  ?f  It  can  hardly 
be  imagined  ^that  Solomon  mentioned  the  stateliness  of 
the  gateway  of  an  house,  without  a  particular  meaning; 
but  if  bands  of  Arabs  had  taken  the  advantage  of  large 
doors  to  enter  into  houses  that  stood  in  the  confines  of 
Solomon's  kingdoms,  or  of  neighbouring  countries  with 
which  the  Jews  were  well  acquainted,  there  is  a  most 
graceful  vivacity  in  the  apophthegm. 

I  do  not  know  whether  there  is  not  another  passage 
that  refers  to  this  riding  into  houses,  I  mean  Zeph.  i.  8, 9. 
J  will  punish  the  princes,  and  the  king^s  children,  and 
all  such  as  are  clothed  with  strange  apparel.  In  the  same 
day,  alsOf  will  I  punish  all  those  that  leap  upon  the 
threshold,  which  Jill  their  master*s  houses  with  violence 
and  deceit.  Those  that  wear  strange  apparel ;  these  are 
words  that  in  this  connexion  seem  only  to  mean  the  rich 

•  Sandys,  p.  117.    Le  Bruyn,  tome  2.  p.  224.    Egmont  and  Heyman. 
vol.  i.  p.300. 

tCb.zxH.  11. 


'Concerning  their  living  in  tents.        209 

that  were  conscious  of  such  power  and  influence,  as  to 
dare  time  of  oppression  and  danger,  to  avow  their  riches, 
and  who  therefore  were  not  afraid  to  wear  the  precious 
manufactiiresof  strange  countries,*  though  they  were  nei- 
ther magistrates,  nor  yet  of  royal  descent.  A  great  number 
of  attendants  is  a  modern  piece  of  oriental  magnificence, 
as  I  shall  hereafter  have  occasion  to  remark,  it  appears  to 
have  been  so  anciently,  Eccles.  v.  11  ;  these  servants, 
now,  it  is  most  certain,  frequently  attend  their  master  on 
horseback,  richly  attired,  sometimes  to  the  number  of 
twentyfive  or  thirty  :f  if  they  did  so  anciently,  with  a 
number  of  servants  attending  great  men,  who  are  repre- 
sented by  this  very  Prophet  as  at  that  time  in  common 
terrible  oppressors,  ch.  iii.  3,  may  be  naturally  supposed 
to  ride  into  people's  houses,  and  having  gained  admission 
by  deceit,  to  force  from  them  by  violence  considerable 
contributions  :  for  this  riding  into  houses  is  not  now  only 
practised  by  the  Arabs,  it  consequently  might  be  prac- 
tised by  others,  too,  anciently.  It  is  not  now  pecu- 
liar to  the  Arabs,  for  le  Bruyn,  after  describing  the  mag- 
nificent furniture  of  several  of  the  Armenian  merchants 
at  Julfa,  that  suburb  of  Ispahan  in  which  they  live,  tells 
us,  that  the  front  door  of  the  greatest  part  of  these  houses 
is  very  small,  partly  to  hinder  the  Persians  from  entering 
into  them  on  horseback,  and  partly  that  they  may  less  ob- 
serve the  magnificence  within.  To  which  ought  to  be 
added,  what  he  elsewhere  observes,  that  these  Armen- 
ians are  treated  with  great  rigour  and  insolence  by  the 
Persians.  If  this  text  refers  to  a  violence  of  this  sort, 
they  are  the  thresholds  of  the  oppressed  over  which  they 
leaped,  not  the  thresholds  of  the  oppressive  masters, 
which  some  have  supposed,  when  they  returned  laden 
with  spoil. 

As  to  the  opinion,  that  the  Prophet  alludes  here  to  the 
idolatrous  observance   that   obtained  among  the  worship- 

•  So  fine  linen  an''  broidered   work,   wliich   the  gtcat  wore,  are  repre* 
aented  as  the  produce  of  t'gypt  by  the  prophet  Ezekiel,  clx.  wy'n.  7. 

t  Voy.  JViaillet,  I,et.  12.  p.  1G8. 

VOL.  I.  27 


210  CONCERNING  THEIR  LIVING  IN  TENTS. 

pers  of  Dagon,  1  Sam.  v.  5,  it  can  have  nothing  to  rec- 
ommend it,  I  think,  but  its  being  proposed  bj  so  old  a 
writer  as  the  Chaldee  Paraphrast. 


OBSERVATION  XII. 

ASSOCIATION    OF    ARAB    TRIBES,    IN  ORDER    TO    DEFEND 
THEMSELVES,    AND    ANNOY    PASSENGERS. 

These  and  other  violences  of  the  Arabs  frequently 
draw  upon  them  alarms,  and  occasion  thera  to  live  in  a 
state  of  apprehension.  For  this  reason,  those  of  the  same 
family  or  clan  usually  live  near  one  another,  in  order  to 
be  mutually  assisting  to  each  other. 

Thus  the  eighteen  Arab  Emirs  of  the  family  that 
d'Arvieux  visited,  kept  near  one  another,  encamping  at 
no  greater  distance  from  their  chief  than  a  league  or  two,^ 
and  all  removing  together  every  month,  sometimes  every 
fortnight,  as  their  cattle  wanted  fresh  pasture,  in  order 
to  be  able  to  assemble  together  with  ease.  May  not  this 
circumstance  serve  to  explain  the  words  of  the  angel,  He^ 
Ishmael,  shall  dwell  in  the  presence  of  all  his  brethren? 
It  is  not,  indeed,  one  of  the  several  senses  the  Synopsis 
Criticorum  of  Pool  has  given  of  that  clause,  but  is  it  not 
as  natural  as  any  of  thera  ?  I  am  sure  it  agrees  as  well 
with  the  preceding  part  of  the  prophecy,  He  will  be 
a  wild  man  ;  his  hand  will  be  against  every  man^  and 
every  viands  hand  against  him,  and  therefore  he  will  find 
it  requisite  not  to  suffer  his  descendants  and  friends  to 
live  dispersed  up  and  down,  but  to  require  them  to  en- 
camp together. 

So  did  not  Abraham.  The  measures  that  he  and  the 
other  pacific  Patriarchs  took,  were  very  different  from 
Ishmael's,  and  those  of  the  modern  Arabs.  When  the 
flocks  and  the  herds  of  Abraham  multiplied,  he  thought 
it  best  that  he  and  his  nephew  Lot  should  part ;  and  Ja- 

•  La  Roque  Voy.  dans  la  Pal.  p.  103, 106. 


CONCERNING  THEIR  LIVING  IN  TENTS.  21 1 

cob,  instead  of  removing  his  tents  every  time  it  became 
requisite  to  seek  new  pasture,  detached  his  sons  from  him, 
and  sometimes  to  a  considerable  distance,  Gen.  xxxvii. 
And  indeed  the  Angel  in  fortelling  that  Ishmael  should  be 
a  wild  man,  his  hand  against  every  man,  and  every  man's 
hand  against  him,  plainly  intimates  that  his  way  of 
life  would  greatly  diflfer  from  that  of  his  father  Abraham, 
if  the  prophecy  do  not  even  point  out  a  kind  of  life 
until  then  unknown.  It  is  certain  most,  if  not  all,  of 
those  that  live  this  kind  of  life,  derive  their  descent  from 
Ishmael. 

OBSERVATION  XIII. 

SUDDEN    DECAMPMENTS  OF    THE    ARABS,    AND    RETREAT 

INTO    THE     DESERTS     WHEN     PURSUED     BY    THEIR 

ENEMIES. 

When  the  Arabs  have  drawn  upon  themselves  such  a 
general  resentment  of  the  more  fixed  inhabitants  of  those 
countries,  that  they  think  themselves  unable  to  stand 
against  them,  they  withdraw  into  the  depths  of  the  great 
wilderness,  where  none  can  follow  them  with  hopes  of 
success. 

The  same  thing  is  mentioned  by  other  writers:  by 
d*Arvieux  among  the  rest,*  who  tells  us,  they  will  be 
quite  ready  to  decamp  upon  less  than  two  hours'  warning, 
and  retiring  immediately  into  the  deserts,  render  it  im- 
possible to  other  nations,  even  the  most  powerful,  to 
conquer  them  ;  they  not  daring  to  venture  far  into  the 
deserts,  where  the  Arabs  alone  know  how  to  steer  their 
course  so  as   to  hit  upon  places  of  water  and  forage. 

Is  it  not  then  most  probable  that  the  dwelling  deep, 
which  Jeremiah  recommends  to  the  Arab  tribes,  ch.  xlix. 
B,  30,  means  this  plunging   far   into  the  deserts  ;  rather 

•  La  Roque  Voy.  dans  la  Pal.  p.  190,  191. 


212  CONCERNING  THEIR  LIVING  IN  TENTS* 

Iban  going  into  deep  caves  and  dens,  as  Grotius  and  other 
commentators  suppose?  That  way  of  endeavouring  to 
avoid  the  fury  of  an  enemy  was  indeed  practised,  not  only 
before  the  days  of  the  Prophet,  see  Judges  vi.  2,  1  Sam. 
xiii.  5,  but  long  after,  as  we  see  in  the  Crusade  writers;* 
but  those  learned  men  will  find  it  extremely  difficult,  I 
believe,  to  produce  any  passages  that  show  that  the  Arabs 
who  live  in  tents  were  wont  to  look  upon  this  as  a  proper 
method  for  them  to  take :  their  way  is  to  retire  far  into  the 
deserts,  not  enter  into  the  bowels  of  the  earth  :  and  so  far 
are  they  from  making  caves  their  refuge,  that  it  is  observed 
of  this  nation,  that  when  they  possess  cities  and  palaces, 
Ihey  never  will  dwell  in  them,  looking  upon  such  places 
rather  as  traps,  than  places  of  defence,f  as  in  similar 
cases  they  were  looked  upon  anciently. J  All  those 
places  of  the  Crusade  writers  that  I  have  marked  in  the 
bottom  of  the  page,  and  which  relate  to  retiring  into  caves 
to  avoid  danger,  speak  of  a  people  that  lived  a  settled  kind 
of  life,  not  ajiitting  one  in  tents. 

That  Hazor,  which  is  directed  to  get  far  off,  and  to 
dwell  deep,§  was  a  nation  that  lived  in  tents,  appears  from 
this  very  paragraph  of  the  Prophet,  Arise,  said  Nebu- 
chadnezzar to  his  people  when  he  conceived  a  purpose 
against  Hazor,  get  ye  up  to  the  wealthy  nation  that  dwell- 
dh  without  care,  which  have  neither  gates  nor  bars,  which 
dwell  alone.  A  plain  description  of  the  Bedouin  way  of 
living;  and  therefore  this  dwelling  deep  hardly  admits  of 
any  other  meaning  if  we  would  interpret  the  Scriptures 
from  Eastern  customs.^f 

I  cannot  but  observe  further,  that  the  words  the  Proph- 
et uses  perfectly  agree  with  this  explanation,  not  with 
that  of  Grotius,  Flee,  get  you  far  off,  dwell  deep,  Sec. 
The  caves   to  which  the  Eastern  people  have  been  wont 

*  Gesta  Dei  per  Francos,  p.  405,  734,  781. 

f  Saudys,  p.  158.    La  Roque  Voy.  dans  la  Pal.  p.  111. 

i  1  Sam.  xxiii.  7.  §  Jer.  xlix.  30. 

II  "  The  Bedouins,  near    Aleppo,"  says  Dr.  R.  "  who  encamp  near  the 
§-a  t  es  in  the  spring,  iahabit  grottoss  in  the  -winter."    MS.  note. 


CONCERNING  THEIR  LIVING  IN  TENTS.  213 

to  retire,  are  in  their  very  towns,  or  in  the  neighbourhood 
of  their  dwellings,  at  least  not  far  off.  Such  was  that 
which  Asa  made,  Jer.  xli.  T,  9. 

As  the  same  term  of  dwelling  deep  is  applied  to  Dedan, 
it  is  reasonable  to  suppose  they  also  were  a  tribe  of  Arabs 
that  lived  in  tents.  The  learned,  from  other  considera- 
tions, have  said  the  same  thing.* 

This  sense  of  the  original  word,  according  to  which 
deep  is  used  for  far  off,  seems  to  be  conGrmed  by  other 
places :  deeply  revolting  from  God,  Isai.  xxxi.  6,  signi- 
fying departing  far  from  him  ;  and  people  of  a  deep  lip,  or 
speech,  Ezek.  iii.  5,  6,  meaning  people  that  used  the  lan- 
guage of  some  remote  country. f 

OBSERVATION  XIV. 

THE    SAME    SUBJECT    CONTINUED,    AND  OF  THE    MANNER 
.    IN    WHICH    THE    ARABS    ELUDE    THEIR    PURSUERS. 

As  the  Arabs  can,  in  this  manner,  withdraw  out  of  the 
reach  of  very  potent  enemies,  so  can  they,  if  provoked, 

*  Vide  Vitringaj  Com.  in  Jes.  xxi.  13. 

•J-  'To  what  Mr.  Harmer  has  adduced  on  this  subject, I  add,*  says  Mr. 
P&rkhurst,  from  Diodorua  Siculun,  speaking  of  the  ancient  Arabs,  lib. 
xix.  p.  722,  Ot«v  voKifjiim  J'uvtt/j.t!  ctS'^et  Tr^oriti,  <pivy>s9-tv  ug  tuv  egnywoy, 
TttuTM  ;tg«ya«vo/  o^vgitjjia.'rt,  '  When  a  strong  body  of  enemies  approach,  ihey 
flee  into  the  desert,  making  this  their  fortress,'  So  Niebuhr  remarks  con- 
cerning their  descendants,  Description  de  I'Arabie,  p.  329,  that  'The  sul- 
tan could  never  impose  a  Turkish  governor  on  the  wandering  Arabian 
tribes;  for  as  every  particular  family  may  abandon  its  tribe  when  not 
pleased  with  the  reigning  Sheekh,  toute  la  tribu  se  retireroit  bientot  au 
fond  du  desert,  all  the  tribe  -would  soon  retire  to  the  bottom  of  the  desert,  if 
it  should  b«  attempted  to  make  them  obey  a  Turkish  governor.'  And  of 
the  Montejik  Arabs  who  encamp  on  the  banks  of  the  Euphrates  near  Bas- 
ra, Niebuhr  observes.  Voyage,  torn.  2.  p.  199,  'When  the  Pasha  of  Bag- 
dad sends  troops  against  tills  tribe,  it  retires  as  soon  as  it  receives  the  intel- 
ligence to  the  bottom  of  the  desert,  whither  the  Turks  dare  not  follow.' 
Once  more,  Mons.  Savary,  l.etlre  1.  sur  I'Kgypte,  torn.  2.  p.  8,  says  con- 
cerning the  wandering  or  Bedouin  Arabs,  '  Always  on  their  guard  against 
tyranny,  on  the  least  discontent  that  is  given  them,  they  pack  up  tlieir 
tents,  lade  their  camels  witli  lliem,  ravage  the  flat  country,  and,  laden  with 
plunder, /(/wn^c,  s'enfonccnt,  into  the  burning  sands,  whither  none  can 
pursue  them,  and  where  they  alone  dare  dwell.'  Sec  Parkhursl's  Hfb. 
J.rt?x.  under  pO;?.    Edit.  ^ 


2t4  CONCERNING  THEIR  LIVING  IN  TENTS. 

occasion  them  very  great  distress,  it  not  being  possible 
to  be  always  guarded  against  them.  Some  time  ago  the 
public  papers  gave  an  account  of  their  destroying  many 
thousands  of  the  Mecca  pilgrims,  upon  some  disgust  the 
Turkish  government  had  given  them,  and  filling  the  whole 
country  with  lamentation.*  Nor  does  the  victoriousness 
of  the  most  successful  princes  intimidate  them  in  many 
cases.  Thus  Curtius  tells  us,  they  set  upon  the  troops 
of  Alexander  himself,  the  mighty  conqueror  of  Asia,  when 
they  found  them  unguarded  in  Lebanon,  and  slew  some,  and 
took  others.f  It  is  to  these  insults  of  theirs,  1  suppose, 
that  Jeremiah  refers,  when,  after  foretelling  the  success 
of  Nebudchadnezzar  in  Egypt,  he  says,  that  he  should  go 
forth  thence  in  peace,  Jer.  xliii.  12. 

The  deserts  that  lie  between  Egypt  and  Syria  are  at 
this  day  terribly  infested  by  the  wild  Arabs.  "  In  trav- 
elling along  the  seacoast  of  Syria,  and  from  Suez  to  Mount 
Sinai,"  says  Dr.  Shaw,J  "  we  were  in  little  or  no  danger 
of  being  robbed  or  insulted ;  In  the  Holy  Land  and  upon 
the  Isthmus  betwixt  Egypt  and  the  Red  Sea,  our  con- 
ductors cannot  be  too  numerous."  He  then  goes  on  to 
inform  his  readers,  that  when  he  went  from  Ramah  to  Je- 
rusalem, though  the  pilgrims  themselves  were  more  than 
six  thousand,  and  were  escorted  by  four  bands  of  Turkish 
infantry,  exclusive  of  three  or  four  hundred  Spahees 
cavalry,  yet  were  they  most  barbarously  insulted  and 
beaten  by  the  Arabs.  The  same  desert,  between  Gaza 
and  Egypt,  appears  to  have  been  a  scene  of  injuries  also 
in  the  time  of  St.  Jerom;§  and  to  have  been  under  the 
power  of  the  Arabs  much  more  anciently  still ;  for  la 
Roque,  in  a  note  on  that  passage  of  d'Arvieux  which  I 
cited  under  the  last  article,  observes  that  Cambyses,  a 
little  after  Nebuchadnezzar's  time,  was  enabled  to  pass 
through  these  deserts  by  means  of  those  supplies  of  wa- 

•  About  the  year  1758,  Yoy.  Niebuhr,  p.  331.  I  Lib.  iv.  c.  2. 

%  Pref.  p.  9,  10.  §  Vide  Hier.  in  Vita  Hilar,  v.  i.  p.  242. 


CONCERNING  THEIR  LIVING  IN  TENTS.  215 

ter  an  Arab  prince  conveyed  to  him.  A  conquering 
prince's  passing  out  of  a  country  which  he  had  perfectly 
subdued,  in  peace,  would  not  in  common  have  been  the 
subject  of  a  prediction ;  but  in  this  case,  as  it  was  the 
passing  through  deserts  where  the  Arabs  at  that  time 
were,  as  they  still  are,  so  much  masters,  who  were  not 
afraid  upon  occasion  to  insult  the  most  victorious  princes^ 
the  mentioning  this  circumstance  was  not  unworthy  of  the 
spirit  of  prophecy. 

This  may  lead  us  also,  perhaps,  to  the  true  sense  of  the 
preceding  words,  And  he  shall  array  himself  with  the 
land  of  Egt/pt,  as  a  shepherd  putteth  on  his  garment,  a 
sense  which  is  not  to  be  met  with,  I  think,  in  the  volumi- 
nous collections  of  Pool,  nor  so  far  as  1  know,  any  where 
else;  for  \  should  suppose  it  signifies,  that  just  as  a  per- 
son appearing  to  be  a  shepherd,  passed  unmolested  in 
common  by  the  wild  Arabs,  so  Nebuchadnezzar,  by  his 
subduing  Egypt,  shall  induce  the  Arab  tribes  to  suffer 
him  to  go  out  of  that  country  unmolested,  the  possession 
of  Egypt  being  to  hioi  what  a  shepherd's  garment  was  to 
a  single  person :  for  though,  upon  occasion,  the  Arabs  are 
not  afraid  to  affront  the  most  powerful  princes,  it  is  not  to 
be  imagined  that  conquest  and  power  have  no  effect  upon 
them.  They  that  dwell  in  the  wilderness,  says  the  Psalm- 
ist, referring  to  these  Arabs,  shall  bow  before  him,  whom 
he  had  described  immediately  before,  he  having  domin- 
ion from  sea  to  sea,  and  from  the  river  to  the  ends  of  the 
earth,  and  which  he  unquestionably  supposes  was  the  great 
inducement  to  that  submission. 

Thus  the  Arab  that  was  charged  with  the  care  of  con- 
ducting Dr.  Pococke  to  Jerusalem,  after  secreting  him 
for  some  time  in  his  tent,  when  he  took  him  out  into  the 
fields,  to  walk  there,  put  on  him  his  striped  garment  ;* 
apparently  for  his  security,  and  that  he  might  pass  for  an 
Arab.  So  d'Arvieux,  when  he  was  sent  by  the  consul  of 
Sidon  to  the  camp  of  the  Grand  Emir,  equipped  himself 

•  Vol.  il.  p.  Q. 


21(i  CONCERNING  THEIR  LIVING  IN  TENTS, 

for  the  greater  security  exactly  like  an  Arab,  and  accord- 
ingly passed  unmolested,  and  unquestioned. 
■  The  employment  of  the  Arabs  is  to  feed  cattle,  and 
consequently  a  shepherd's  garment  may  mean  the  same 
thing  with  the  Arab  dress.  Or  if  it  signifies  something 
difierent,  as  there  are  Rusbwans  and  Turcomans  about 
Aleppo,  who  live  in  tents  and  feed  cattle,  much  as  the 
Arabs  do,  according  to  Dr.  Russell  ;  and  as  a  passage  in 
Isaiah,  ch.  xiii.  20,  seems  to  insinuate  there  was  a  like 
distinction  in  his  time.  Neither  shall  the  Arabian  pitch 
tent  there,  neither  shall  the  shepherds  make  their  fold 
there  ;  that  different  dress  of  a  shepherd,  whatever  it  was, 
must  equally  protect  a  person  in  those  deserts,  for  there 
would  be  no  such  thing  as  feeding  of  cattle  in  them,  if 
such  sort  of  persons  were  molested  by  the  Arabs  as  pas- 
sengers are. 

OBSERVATION  XV. 

THE    SAME    SUBJECT    COITTINUED,    IN    ILLUSTRATION    OF 
ISA.    LXIII.    13,    14. 

It  will  greatly  add  to  the  beauty  of  the  image  made 
use  of  by  the  Prophet  Isaiah,  where  he  compares  the  es- 
cape of  Israel  from  Pharaoh,  through  the  Red  Sea,  to  the 
motion  of  a  horse  in  the  wilderness,  and  the  passing  of  a 
herd  into  the  valley,^  if  we  understand  it  as  a  reference 
to  the  flying  of  the  wild  Arabs  of  the  Desert  from  their 
enemies,  by  which  they  secure  their  liberties,  and  avoid 
the  effects  of  the  ambition  of  great  princes,  desirous  of 
enslaving  as  many  of  mankind  as  they  can  ;  yeiy  I  think, 
it  has  never  been  considered  in  that  light. 

The  passage  I  refer  to  lies  thus  in  our  common  transla- 
tion :  That  led  them  through  the  deep,  as  a  horse  in  the 
Wilderness,  that  they  should  not  stumble  ?  As  a  beast 
goeth  down  into  the  valley,  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  cans- 

*  Chap.  Ixiii.  13, 14. 


CONCERNING  THEIR  LIVING  IN  TENTS.  21  f 

ed  him  to  rest  ;  so  didst  thou  lead  thy  people,  to  make 
thyself  a  glorious  name.  1  do  not  know  how  it  affects 
the  mind  of  other  people  ;  but  understood  as  merelj  re- 
ferring to  the  unobstructed  running  of  a  single  horse  in  a 
plain,  and  the  descent  of  a  beast  into  a  valley  to  take  its 
repose  there,  it  seems  to  me  too  low  and  unanimatedt  es- 
pecially considering  the  manner  in  which  this  Prophet  is 
wont  to  write.  More  surprising  still,  when  we  recollect 
that  the  Prophet  is  here  describing  a  scene  by  which  God 
acquired  to  himself  a  glorious  name,  and  which,  conse- 
quently, demanded  the  greatest  strength  and  magnificence 
of  thought. 

The  Bishop  of  London,  who  so  often  assists  us  through 
the  difficulties  that  occur  in  reading  this  Prophet,  fails  us 
here,  only  translating  the  words  after  this  manner: 

"  Leading  them  through  the  abyss,  like  a  courser  in  the 
plain,  without  obstacle. 

"As  the  herd  descendeth  to  the  valley,  the  Spirit  of 
Jehovah  conducted  them: 

"  So  didst  thou  lead  thy  people,  to  make  thyself  a  name 
illustrious." 
And  giving  a  different  reading  or  two  in  a  note  on  the  14th 
verse. 

The  manner  in  which  his  Lordship  has  pointed  these 
verses  is,  undoubtedly,  an  improvement,  as  are  also  some 
things  in  the  translation  ;  but  still  an  uneasy  sensation  is 
felt,  arising  from  something  like  meanness  in  the  meta- 
phors here  made  use  of,  though  it  is  somewhat  abated  in 
his  translation. 

Nor  does  it  appear  why,  in  order  to  rest,  an  herd  should 
descend  into  a  valley.  According  to  Dr.  Shaw,  the  hills 
must  afford  them  as  pleasing  and  comfortable  places  for 
their  repose,  as  the  vallies.  The  eastern  hills,  according 
to  this  agreeable  writer,  are  oftentimes  stocked  "  with 
shrubs  and  a  delicate  short  grass,  which  the  cattle  are 
more  fond  of,  than  of  such  as  is  common  to  fallow  ground 
and  meadows.     Neither  h  the  grazing  and  feeding  of  cat- 

TOL.    I.  28 


218  CONCERNING  THEItt  LIVING  IN  TENTS. 

tie  peculiar  to  Judea;  it  is  still  practised  all  over  raouiit 
Libanus,  the  Castravan  mouotaius,  and  Barbarj,  where 
the  higher  grounds  are.  appropriated  to  this  use,  as  the 
plains  and  vallies  are  reserved  for  tillage.  For,  besides 
the  good  management  and  economy,  there  is  this  further 
advantage  in  it,  that  the  milk  of  cattle  fed  in  this  manner 
is  far  more  rich  and  delicious,  at  the  same  time  their  flesh 
is  more  sweet  and  nourishing.* 

A  page  or  two  after  he  tells  us,  "  Even  at  present,  not- 
withstanding the  want  there  has  been  for  many  ages  of 
proper  culture  and  improvement,  yet  the  plains  and  val- 
lies, though  as  fruitful  as  ever,  lie  almost  entirely  neglect- 
ed, whilst  every  little  hill  is  crowded  with  inhabitants. 
The  reason  is  plain  and  obvious;  inasmuch  as  they  find 
here  sufficient  conveniences  for  themselves,  and  much 
greater  for  their  cattle.  For  they  themselves  have 
bread  to  the  full :  whilst  their  cattle  browse  upon  richer 
herbage ;  and  both  of  them  are  refreshed  by  springs  of 
excellent  water,  too  much  wanted,  especially  in  the  sum- 
mer season,  not  only  in  the  plains  of  this,  but  of  other 
countries  in  the  same  climale."f 

If  the  account  is  just,  a  reader  may  wonder  why  the 
Prophet  mentions  an  herd's  descending  into  a  valley,  in 
order  to  its  resting. 

But  if  we  consider  this  metaphor  as  pointing  at  what 
happens  among  the  wild  Arabs,  every  part  of  it  will  ap- 
pear, I  apprehend,  perfectly  clear  and  just;  and  the  im- 
age will  be  placed  in  a  point  of  light  in  which  it  will  strike 
us  both  with  its  liveliness  and  magnificence. 

I  would  begin  the  explanation  of  the  passage,  by  ob- 
serving that  the  original  Hebrew  word  Q)d,sus,  in  the  sin' 
gular  signifies  not  only  a  single  horsey  but  cavalry^  or  a 
number  of  horses  with  riders  on  them  :  just  as  we  use  the 
word  horse  to  express  a  single  animal  of  that  species ; 
and  at  other  times  use  it  to  express  the  horsemen  of  an 
army.     Thus  the  word  Exod.  xiv.  9,  23,  to  express  the 

•  P.  338.  cd.  1757, 4to.  •  f  P.  340. 


CONCERNING  THEIR  LIVING  IN  TENTS.  219 

horse  of  Pharaoh's  army  that  pursued  after  the  Israelites. 
Now  if  it  expresses  the  horses  of  the  Egyptian  army,  it 
may  as  well  here  express  the  horse  of  the  inhabitant*  of 
(he  wilderness,  that  is,  the  Arab  horse  or  cavalry. 

For  in  the  Scriptures  the  Arabs  are  represented  as  dis- 
tinguished from  other  nations,  by  their  abode  in  the  wil- 
derness of  the  East.  Jer.  iii.  2,  is  a  sufficient  proof  of 
this;  Lift  up  thine  eyes  to  the  high  placeSy  and  S£e where 
thou  hast  not  been  lien  with  :  in  the  ways  hast  thou  sat 
for  them,  as  the  Arabian  in  the  wilderness^  and  thou  hast 
polluted  the  land  with  thy  whoredoms.  •  i4 

The  Arab  horse  are  now  remarkable  for  the  surprising 
swiftness  with  which  they  withdraw  themselves  out  of  the 
reach  of  mighty  princes,  who  have  sometimes  attempted 
to  pursue  them.  1  have  elsewhere  given  an  account, 
from  Maillet  and  de  la  Roque,  of  their  prodigious  swift- 
ness with  which  they  withdraw  out  of  danger :  to  which 
I  may  add,  from  the  last  of  those  two  writers,  that  the 
great  Emir  of  mount  Carmel  had  a  mare,  for  it  seems  they 
ride  them  in  preference  to  stallions,  or  even  castrated 
horses,  as  best  suiting  them,  on  account  of  their  greater 
silence,  gentleness,  and  ability  to  bear  fatigue,  hunger,  and 
thirst,  which  qualities  they  have  found  from  experience, 
they  possess  above  the  males  of  that  species ;  I  say  this 
prince  had  a  mare,  according  to  him,  whom  he  would  not 
have  parted  from  for  five  thousand  crowns,  having  car- 
ried him  three  days  and  three  nights  together  without 
eating  or  drinking,  and  by  this  means,  delivered  him  out 
of  the  hands  of  those  that  pursued  after  him.* 

Such  an  account  of  the  horse  of  the  wilderness,  takes 
away  all  meanness  from  this  part  of  the  representation  of 
the  Prophet,  v.  13,  and  throws  the  utmost  liveliness  into 
the  description  of  the  withdrawing  of  Israel  through  the 
Red  Sea,  from  Pharaoh,  and  escaping  out  of  his  hands, 
when  he  pursued  after  them  with  a  great  army,  and  in  a 
terrible  rage;  yet  they  were  brought   off,  by  a  diving 

•  Vey.  dans  l«  PaUbtinc,  ch.  U,  p.  163. 


220  CONCERNING  THEIR  LIVING  IN  TENTS. 

interposition  resembling  the  amazing  escapes  of  the  wild 
Arabs  of  the  Desert  out  of  the  hands  of  mighty  princes, 
that  have  sometimes  attempted  to  overtake  them  ;  espec- 
ially when  we  add,  that  other  eastern  horses  are  wont  to 
move  slow,  in  great  pomp,  and  are  vey  magnificently  har- 
nessed. After  this  latter  manner  the  Turks  are  wont  to 
ride,*  while  speed  is  what  the  Arabs  of  the  Desert  are 
chiefly  concerned  about. 

If  they  are  not  so  sure  footed  as  the  mule,  which  I 
think,  Dr.  Shaw  affirms,-]-  it  will  account  for  the  mention 
of  not  stumbling  "in  this  verse  comparing  the  escaping  of 
the  Israelites  from  Pharaoh,  to  the  escape  of  the  Arabs 
of  the  wilderness,  on  the  account  of  its  suddenness, 
remarking  at  the  same  time,  that  no  ill  accident  attended 
them  in  this  retreat,  which  sometimes  overtakes  the  swift- 
est and  the  surest  footed  horses. 

With  respect  to  the  herds  going  down  into  the  valley, 
it  may  be  understood  two  diflferent  ways,  but  each  of  them 
a  continuation  of  the  same  image,  of  the  escape  of  Arabs 
from  their  pursuers. 

They  decamp  upon  an  alarm,  d'Arvieux  tells  us,  ac- 
cording to  de  la  Roque's  account,  in  two  hours  time, 
marching  all  of  them  off  with  their  cattle,  their  herds  and 
their  flocks,  and  their  families,  with  their  baggage  loaded 
on  bullocks,  mules,  or  camels,  and  immediately  plunge  in> 
to  the  deserts.J  As  this  is  done  to  secrete  themselves 
from  their  pursuers,  however  proper  and  agreeable  the 
hills  may  be  for  feeding  their  cattle,  it  must  be  more 
agreeable  for  them  to  withdraw,  on  such  occasions,  into 
some  deep  sequestered  valley,  the  better  to  conceal  them- 
selves from  their  enemies  that  may  endeavour  to  follow 
them ;  preferring  this  to  any  other  place  j  which  is  prob- 
ably what  the  Prophet  here  refers  to. 

It  is  into  such  places  the  Arabs  of  Barbary  at  least  re- 
tire, when  they  want   to  lie  concealed,  according  to  Dr. 

*  Niebahr,  Desct-ip.  de  1' Arabic,  p.  144.  f  P.  166, 

i  Voy.  dans  la  Palestine,  p.  190. 


CONCERNING  THEIR  LIVING  IN  TENTS.  221 

Sbaw,  who  iaforms  us,  in  the  preface  to  his  Travels,*  that 
about  the  middle  of  the  afternoon  they  began  to  look  out 
for  the  encampments  of  the  Arabs,  who  to  prevent  such 
parties  as  their's  from  living  at  free  charges  upon  them, 
took  care  to  pitch  in  woods,  vallies,  or  places  the  least 
conspicuous.  And  that,  indeed,  unless  they  discovered 
their  flocks,  the  smoke  of  their  tents,  or  heard  the  barking 
of  their  dogs,  it  was  sometimes  with  difficulty,  if  at  all, 
they  were  found. 

So  after  Israel  had  escaped  from  the  Egyptian  army, 
they  laid  in  a  state  of  safety  in  the  wilderness,  with  their 
flocks  and  herds,  and  the  riches  they  brought  out  of 
Egypt,  unattacked  afterward  by  the  succeeding  king  of 
that  country ;  and  in  generalf  unmolested  by  any  of  the 
other  bordering  nations  :  like  an  Arab  herd,  that  having 
escaped  the  hands  of  their  enemies,  was  conducted  into 
some  safe  retired  valley,  in  order  to  remain  undisturbed, 
after  having  felt  the  anguish  of  being  closely  pursued 
from  which  pursuit  they  hardly  had  escaped. 

Or  as  the  Hebrew  word  nj^pa  bequaali  seems,  strictly 
speaking,  to  mean  a  narrow  pass  through  a  range  of  moun- 
tains, though  it  is  used  in  a  more  general  sense  for  ani/ 
vallies,  those  of  easy  access,  as  well  as  those  that  are 
more  difficult, |  it  might  be  the  design  of  the  Prophet  to 
express  the  state  of  safety  into  which  God  led  Israel,  by 
carrying  them  into  the  Wilderness,  where  it  would  be  too 
difficult  for  the  Egyptians  afterward  to  attack  them,  and 
most  other  nations  thereabouts,  in  like  manner,  by  com- 
paring them  to  an  Arab  herd  conducted  through  a  diffi' 
cult  pass  in  the  mountains,  which  have  been  sometimes 
actually  observed  in  the  wilderness  between  Egypt  and 

•  P.  17. 

f  My  reader,  vho  recollects  what  is  said  in  Exod.  xvii.  concerning  Ama- 
lek,  will  be  sensible  why  I  express  myself  after  this  maaacr  upon  tliis  sub- 
ject 

i  Or  more  properly,  a  cleft,  breach,  or  divititn,  in  a  mountain  or  rock; 
a  mountain  or  rock  broken  in  two,  so  as  to  afford  a  narrow  defile  or  pass. 
Sec  the  following  papre.  Edit. 


222  CONCERNING  THEIR  LIVING  IN  TENTS. 

Canaan,=^  bj  which  means  they  secured  themselves  from 
danger,  it  being  unsafe  for  any.  to  pursue  them  after  they 
had  passed  through  such  a  passage  in  the  mountains. 

"  About  four  miles  before  we  arrived  at  Pharan,  we 
passed  through  a  remarkable  breach  in  a  rock  ;  each  side 
of  it  as  perpendicular  as  a  wall,  aibout  eighty  feet  high, 
and  the  breach  is  about  forty  broad."  "It  is  at  this 
breach,  I  imagine,  the  Hotites  were  smitten,"  says  (he 
celebrated  Mr.  Wortley  Montague,f  "  four  miles  beyond 
the  present  ruins  of  Pharan  ;  for  having  passed  this 
breach,  they  could  make  a  stand,  nor  could  they  well  be 
pursued."  Accordingly  the  word  descend  may  be  under- 
stood to  signify  plunging  deeper  info  the  wilderness, 
without  regard  to  the  height  or  lowness  of  the  ground. 

But  if  this  thought  should  be  looked  upon  as  somewhat 
strained,  the  first  representation,  derived  from  the  Arabs 
leading  their  flocks  and  herds  into  some  sequestered  val- 
ley, where  they  may  lie  unmolested,  makes  the  image  of 
the  Prophet  a  natural  and  lively  representation  enough  of 
the  state  of  safety  in  the  Wilderness,  into  which  God 
conducted  Israel  through  the  Red  Sea,  and  sufficiently 
rtmote  from  what  is  mean  and  trifling, 

OBSERVATION  XVI. 

ARAB    TRIBES    FREQUEIVTLV    SPOIL    EACH    OTHER. 

Shepherds  however  might,  in  some  cases,  be  ill  treat- 
ed by  the  Arabs  without  doubt,  for  we  find  that  one  Arab 
will  sometimes  treat  another  very  badly.  Thus  the  au- 
thor of  the  account  of  the  ruins  of  Balbec,  describing  his 
journey  from  Palmyra  thither,  tells  us, J  that  about  four 
hours  before  their  arrival  at  Carietein,  they  discovered  a 
party  of  Arabian  horsemen  at  a  distance ;  to  which,  had 
they  been  superior  in  number,   they  must  have  fallen  an 

•  See  Irwin's  late  Travels  from  Upper  Egypt  to  CRiro. 
t  Plul.  Tram.  Tol.  Ivi,  p.  48.  *  Ruins  of  Balbeo,  p.  2. 


CONCERNING  THEIR  LIVING  IN  TENTS.  228 

easy  prej,  in  the  languid  state  to  which  both  their  men 
and  horsey  were  reduced,  by  a  march  of  above  twenty 
hours  over  the  burning  sands  ;  but  upon  their  nearer  ap- 
proach they  began  to  retire  precipitately,  and  abandoned 
some  cattle^  which  their  friends  seized  as  a  matter  of 
course,  "  laughing,"  says  he,  "  at  our  remonstrances 
against  their  injustice."  In  like  manner  Egraont  and 
Heyman  com^ain,*  that  they  could  not  get  their  Arab 
tribes  to  carry  them  to  Tor,  in  their  return  from  Mount 
Sinai  to  Cairo  j  who  gave  this  reason  for  their  refusal, 
that  they  might  happen  to  fall  in  with  some  of  the  Ara- 
bians their  enemies,  and  thus  lose  both  their  camels  and 
goods. f 

The  Arabs  then  treat  other  Arabs  with  whom  they 
have  misunderstandings  in  a  harsh  manner,  and  perhaps 
those  that  only  belong  to  distant  tribes,  with  whom  they 
have  no  particular  connexions  of  friendship:  but  this  is 
not  all ;  they  often  treat  their  confederates,  of  a  more 
peaceful  turn  of  mind  than  themselves,  in  a  very  oppres- 
sive way,  of  which  the  Religious  of  a  convent  near  Mount 
Sinai  can  furnish  us  with  a  striking  instance,  who  having 
by  the  labour  of  some  days  cleansed  a  capacious  cistern 
near  it,  which  receives  its  water  from  the  convent,  and  lib- 
erally refreshes  therewith  the  Arabs  and  their  cattle,  but 
was  choaked  up  with  an  immense  quantity  of  gravel  and 
stone,  washed  down  by  severe  rains  from  the  mountains* 
yet  were  they  not  suffered  to  return  by  these  ungrateful 
Arabs,  for  whose  convenience  all  this  labour  had  been  be- 
stowed, without  paying  each  of  them  a  sultanie,  and  giv- 
ing them  provisions  besides,  for  the  permission.  This 
Dr.  Shaw  himself  was  an  eyewitness  of,  it  being  done 
while  he  was  there.J     And  yet  the  chiefs  of  these  neigh- 

•  Vol.  ii.  p.  188. 

■f  "  The  tribes,  says  Dr.  Russell,  in  his  MS.  note  on  this  place,  be!ng  of- 
ten at  war  with  each  other,  frequently  commit  hostilities  if^AlcA  sre  not/or 
the  saki  of  plundtr."  Esit. 

•^  P.  m. 


324  CONCERNING  THEIR  LIVING  IN  TENTS. 

bouring  Arabs,  we  are  expressly  told  in  the  travels  of 
Egmont  and  Heyman,  are  styled  the  defenders  of  the  con- 
vent of  Mount  Sinai.* 

That  this  rapacioiisness  obtained  very  early  among 
tbeni)  we  have  reason  to  believe,  since  we  know  that  they 
were  in  the  most  ancient  times  guilty  of  great  violences 
toward  passengers  ;f  and  to  this  rapaciousness  the  Sep- 
tuagint  seem  also  to  refer,  in  their  representation  of  Da- 
vid's message  to  Nabal,  Beholdy  I  have  heard  that  thy 
shepherds  are  now  shearing  for  thee,  they  were  with  us  in 
the  wilderness,  and  we  have  not  hindered  them,  oujc 
aTT&iuKvffotfMv,  nor  have  we  commanded  them,  otw  ev£TEiA«- 
jwgO*,  a  II  tHe  days  of  their  being  in  Carmel,  1  Sam.  xxv. 
7.  This  is  translating  like  peaple  perfectly  well  acquaint- 
ed  with  the  management  of  the  Arab  Emirs,  whose  man- 
ners David,  though  he  lived  in  the  wilderness  as  they  did, 
had  not  adopted.  One  of  them  at  the  head  of  six  hun- 
dred men,  would  have  commanded,  from  time  to  time) 
some  provision  or  other  present,  from  Nabal's  servants, 
for  permitting  them  to  feed  in  quiet ;  and  would  have 
driven  them  away  from  the  watering  place  upon  any  dis- 
like. He  had  not  done  either.  Nor  is  this  a  represen- 
tation of  the  Septuagint's :  the  Hebrew  word  DUD^DH  he- 
clamenoom,  which  we  translate  hurt,  the  margin  tells  us 
signifies  shamed.  We  shamed  them  not ;  and  it  is  used 
Jer.  xiv.  3,  to  express  a  returning  from  a  watering  place 
without  water :  and  the  word  np33  niphkad,  translated 
missing,  is  the  passive  of  a  verb  which  signifies  to  visit, 
and  perhaps  comes  to  signify  missing,  or  wanting,  from 
something  being  usually  wanting  where  an  Arab  Emir 
bad  visited. 

Some  late  authors  have  represented  this  address  of 
David  to  Nabal  as  a  very  strange  one,  and  made  it  one 
topic  of  defamation,  as  if  he  had  the  assurance  to  press 
Nabal  for  a  supply  of  his  wants,  from  his  not  having  rob- 
bed or  hurt  his  servants,  for  which  he  could  have  no  pre- 

*  Vol.  u.  p.  157.  t  See  Jer.  iii.2. 


CONCERNING  THEIR  LIVING  IN  TENTS.  225 

tence  ;  and  on  the  old  man's  declining  it,  resolving  to  cut 
his  throat,  and  those  of  ail  his  household.  It  would  be 
an  over  officious  zeal  to  attempt  to  justify  this  design  of 
David,  when  he  himself  condemned  it,  as  he  certainly  did, 
when  he  blessed  God  for  preventing  him,  by  his  provi- 
dence, from  avenging  himself  with  his  own  hand,  1  Sam. 
XXV.  32,  33 ;  but  it  is  right  to  place  every  action  in  its 
true  light,  as  far  as  possible,  and  David  might  certainly 
very  gracefully  remind  Nabal,  that  though  he  was  unjust- 
ly driven  out  from  the  inhabited  parts  of  Judea,  and  forc- 
ed to  live  very  like  the  Arabs  of  the  Desert,  and  reduced 
to  necessities  equal  to  theirs,  he  did  not  imitate  their 
rapaciousness,  nor  extort  the  least  thing  from  his  servants 
when  they  were  absolutely  in  his  power,  as  the  Arabs  of 
the  wilderness  often  did ;  when  then  in  return  to  all  this, 
Nabal  treated  him  with  reproaches,  it  is  the  less  to  be 
wondered  at,  that  he  was  wrought  up  to  a  rage  that 
prompted  him  to  think  of  imitating  these  Arabs  among 
whom  he  was  forced  now  to  dwell,  who  thought  them- 
selves authorized  to  take  from  others  what  they  wanted, 
and  even  to  kill  those  that  resisted,  which  is  what  they 
do  this  day.*  The  law  of  God  had  hitherto  restrained 
him  from  doing  any  thing  of  this  kind,  made  him  ackowl- 
edge  the  thought  anger  had  inspired,  to  be  wrong,  and  en- 
gaged him  to  lay  aside  the  bloody  purpose :  all  this  must 
be  allowed  to  be  proper  ;  must  a  contrary  thought,  in  the 
paroxysm  of  his  anger,  amidst  Arab  examples,  and  in  a 
lime  of  much  less  light  and  knowledge  of  the  laws  of  mo- 
rality than  ours,  be  thought  to  be  absolutely  inconsistent 
with  virtue  ?f 

Some  tribes  of  Arabs,  however,  it  ought  to  be  observed, 
are  much  less  mischievous  than  others.     Of  those  three 

•  Voy.  dans  la  Pal,  p.  182. 

f  Indeed  the  wkole  scope  of  Uie  place  seems  to  indicate  that  David  and 
his  men  not  only  did  them  no  wrong,  but  that  they  had  acted  »s  guardians 
to  the  property  of  Nabal,  not  permitting  the  rapacious  hordes  cither  to 
plunder  the  shepherds,  or  drive  off  the  cattle,  Enn  . 

Tor.  ;.  29 


22*  CONCERNING  THEIR  LIVING  IN  TENTS. 

tribes  which  style  themselves  the  defenders  of  the  <ion- 
vent  of  Mount  Sinai,  in  particular,  we  are  told,^  that  that 
tribe,  which  is  the  smallest,  in  point  of  number,  is  the 
most  untractable  and  rapacious  of  all,  making  continual 
demands  on  the  convent ;  that  the  second,  which  is  more 
numerous,  is  less  rapacious  ;  and  that  the  third  is  far  more 
favourable  still  to  the  convent,  never  using  those  unjust 
methods  so  frequently  practised  by  the  first.  It  was 
necessary  to  make  this  remark  before  I  closed  this  arti- 
cle, on  account  of  some  seeming  inconsistency  between 
this  and  a  preceding  Observation :  an  Arab  dress,  or  a 
shepherd's  garment,  might  be  an  effectual  security  as  to 
some  tribes  ;  others  might,  frequently,  tyrannize  over 
those  that  fed  their  herds  and  flocks  in  the  desert,  though 
they  were  at  the  same  time  looked  upon  rather  as  confed- 
erates than  enemies. 


OBSERVATION  XVII. 

HOLES  AND  CAVES  IN  THE  ROCKS,  FREQ.UENT  PLACES 
OP  LODGING  BOTH  FOR  DOVES  AND  FISHERMEN. 
OF    CONSECRATED    DOTES    AND    FISHES. 

Sometimes  those  that  have  no  tents,  shelter  them- 
selves  from  the  inclemency  of  the  night  air,  in  holes  and 
caverns  which  they  find  in  their  rocky  hills,  where  they 
can  kindle  fires  to  warm  themselves,  as  well  as  to  dress 
their  provisions  ;  to  which  may  be  added,  that  doves  also, 
in  those  countries,  frequently  haunt  such  places,  as  well 
as  some  other  birds. 

Dr.  Richard  Chandler,  in  bis  travels  in  Asia  Minor, 
I>as  both  taken  notice  of  the  doves  there  lodging  in  holes 
of  the  rocks;!  and  of  the  shepherds  and  fishermen  being 
wont  to  make  use  of  such  retreats,  and  of  their  kindling 
fires  in  them,  by  which  practice  those  doves  must  be  fre- 
quently very  much  smutted,  and  their  feathers  dirtied. J 

*  Egmont  and  Heyman,  v.  ii.  p.  157.  \V.  19.  *  P.  55, 


CONCERNIxVG  THEIR  LIVING  IN  TENTS.  227 

And  I  have  been  sometimes  ready  to  imagine,  that  an 
attention  to  these  circumstances  may  aflford  as  easy 
and  natural  an  account  as  any  that  has  been  given,  of 
that  association  of  such  very  different  things  as  doves 
mid  smoky  places,  which  we  meet  with  in  the  Ixviiilh 
Psalm.* 

It  is  certain  the  people  of  Israel  are  compared  to  a 
dove,  in  the  book  of  Psalms  ;  O  deliver  not  the  soul  of 
thy  turtle  dove  unto  the  multitude  of  the  wicked  ;  forget 
not  the  congregation  of  thy  poor  for  ever,  Ps.  Isxiv.  19  ; 
and  the  same  image  appears  to  have  been  made  use  of,  in 
this  68th  Psalm.  If  it  was  made  use  of,  it  was  not  un- 
natural to  compare  Israel,  who  had  been  in  a  very  afflict- 
ed state  in  Egypt,  to  a  dove  making  its  abode  in  the  hol- 
low of  a  rock,  which  had  been  smutted  by  the  fires  shep- 
herds had  made  in  it  for  the  heating  their  milk,  or  other 
culinary  purposes;  which  led  them  to  make  such  little 
heaps  of  stones,  on  which  they  might  set  their  pots,  hav- 
ing an  hollow  under  them,  in  which  they  put  the  fuel,  ac- 
cording to  the  Eastern  mode,  of  which  I  have  given  an  ac- 
count elsewhere,  and  which  little  buildings  are  meant  by 
the  word  here  translated  pots. 

This  image  might  very  properly  be  made  use  of  to 
express  any  kind  of  affliction  Israel  might  have  suffer- 
ed, when  they  are  compared  as  a  body  of  people  to  a 
dove ;  and  certainly  not  less  so,  when  they  had  been 
forced  to  work  without  remission  in  the  brick  kilns  of 
Egypt. 

For  so  the  sense  will  be  something  like  this  :  O  my 
people !  though  ye  have  been  like  a  dove  in  an  Jiole  of  a- 
rock,  that  hath  been  blackened  by  the  fires  of  the  shep-  * 
herds  for  the  boiling  their  pots  ;  yet  on  this  joyous  occa- 
sion did  you  appear  as  the  most  beautiful  of  that  species, 
whose  wings  are  like  silver,  and  the  more  muscular  parts, 
from  whence  the  strength  of  the  wings  are  derived,  like  the 
splendour  of  gold. 

•  V.  t3. 


228  CONCERNING  THEIR  LIVING  IN  TENTS. 

The  colour  of  their  common  pigeons  seems  to  be  like  that 
of  the  dove  house  pigeons  of  our  country,  blue  or  ash-col- 
our, from  a  circumstance  mentioned  by  Pitts;*'  for  he 
says,  "  in  Mecca  there  are  thousands  of  blue  pigeons, 
which  none  will  affright,  or  abuse,  much  less  kill  them  ; 
and  they  are  therefore  so  very  tame,  that  they  will  pick 
meat  out  of  one's  hand.  They  come  in  great  flocks  to 
the  Temple,  where  they  are  usually  fed  by  the  Hagges.1[ 
For  the  poor  people  of  Mecca  come  to  them  with  a  little 
sort  of  dish  made  with  rushes,  with  some  corn  in  if,  beg- 
ging them  to  bestow  something  on  Hammamet  metta  nabee, 
i.e.  the  pigeons  of  the  Prophet." 

But  though  pigeons  or  doves  are  in  common  blue  in  the 
East,J  yet  there  were  some,  even  anciently,  that  were 
more  beautiful ;  witness  those  lines  of  Tibullus,  which 
have  been  cited  by  commentators  on  this  passage. 

Quid  referam,  ut  volitet  crebras  iotacta  per  urtes 
^Iba  i'alsestino  saocta  columba  Syro  ? 


Why  shoald  I  say. 


How  thro'  the  crowded  towns  the  milk  white  doTe, 
Id  Syria  sacred,  may  with  safety  rove  ? 

Here  we  see  some  of  the  doves  of  Palestine  were  white, 
their  wings  covered  as  with  silver;  they  were  treated 
with  great  respect  like  the  blue  pigeons  of  Mecca,  receiv- 
ing no  hurt  in  populous  cities,  and  were  considered  as  devo- 
ted to  some  deity  j  but  what  is  meant  by  the  intermingled 
splendour  of  gold,  does  not  appear  in  this  quotation,  unless 
we  should  suppose,  it  is  involved  in  the  circumstance  of 
its  being  a  consecrated  animal. 

It  does  not  appear  to  be  the  description  of  an  animal 
adorned  merely  by  the  hand  of  nature.  We  have  no  ac- 
counts, so  far  as  I  remember,  of  a  pigeon   wholly  white, 

-  •  p.  127.  fl^'ie  pilgrims. 

^  1  liave  been  assured  by  the  gentleman  who  was  at  Jerusalem  in  1744, 
the  pigeons  of  that  country  too  are  like  our  pigeons,  though  he  fancied 
somewhat  larger. 


CONCERNING  THEIR  LIVING  IN  TENTS.  22S 

exce{)t  some  feathers  of  the  colour  of  gold  on  the  breast ; 
but  it  is  easy  to  conceive  of  a  consecrated  bird,  bo  adorn- 
ed by  superstition  as  to  answer  such  a  description.  The 
ancient  heathens  are  known  to  have  ornamented  their  aacred 
animals  with  trinkets  of  gold.  The  Syrians  might  thus 
adorn  their  sacred  doves,  and  probably  did.  Something  of 
this  kind  still  remains  in  those  Eastern  countries,  and  is 
supposed  to  be  a  remain  of  ancient  heathenish  superstition. 

Sir  John  Chardin  twice  mentions  fishes  reputed  to  be 
sacred  at  this  day  in  the  East.  In  his  third  Vol.  he  tells 
us,  "  that  at  a  town  called  Comicha,  he  found  in  the  court 
yard  of  a  mosque  two  reservoirs,  or  basins  of  water,  the  one 
twenty  paces  from  the  other,  full  of  fishes,  some  of  which 
had  rings  of  brass,  some  of  silver,  others  of  gold.  I  ap- 
prehended that  these  fish  had  the  rings  in  their  nostrils  by 
way  of  ornament ;  but,  I  was  informed,  it  was  in  token  of 
their  being  consecrated.  None  dared  to  take  them  :  such 
a  sacrilege  was  supposed  most  certainly  to  draw  after  it 
the  vengeance  of  the  saint  to  whom  they  were  consecrated ; 
and  his  votaries,  not  content  to  leave  (hem  to  his  resent- 
ment, took  upon  themselves  to  punish  the  transgressors, 
An  Armenian  Christian  was  killed  upon  the  spot  by  one 
of  them,  who  had  ventured  to  take  some  of  these  sacred 
fish."* 

This  is  a  remain  of  ancient  superstition.  Dr.  Richard 
Chandler,  in  his  travels  in  Asia  Minor,  gives  us  a  note  from 
^lian,f  who  speaks  of  tame  fishes,  that  wore  golden  neck- 
laces and  earrings,  in  a  clear  fountain,  in  a  temple  belong- 
ing to  the  military  Jupiter. 

As  the  worship  of  the  Syrian  goddess  Astarte  was 
very  ancient,J  to  whom  the  white  doves  mentioned  by 
Tibullus  were  consecrated,  the  superstition  of  consecrat- 
ing that  animal  to  her  might  very  possibly,  be  as  ancient 
as  the  time  of  the  Psalmist,  as  also  the  adorning  them 
with  gold  J  and  that  he  alludes  to  these  circumstances 
here.     Israel  is  to  me  as  a  consecrated  dove,^  and  though 

•  p.  91.   See  also  p.  143.  f  P-  I'JT"- 

\  Or  Asbtarotb,  Judges  ii,  13,  &c.  §  Pt.  btxiv.  19. 


230  CONCERNING  THEIR  LIVING  IN  TENTS. 

your  circumstances  have  made  you  rather  appear  like  a 
poor  dove,  blackened  by  taking  up  its  abode  in  a  smoky 
hole  of  the  rocks ;  yet  shall  you  become  beautiful  and 
glorious  as  a  Syrian  silver  coloured  pigeon,  on  whom  some 
ornament  of  gold  is  put. 


''*****'^****^*'  OBSERVATION  XVIII. 


iaJtA^H' 


CATES  FREQUENT  PLACES   OF  LODGING  FOR  THE   8HEP- 

'UU- 
HERDS   IN  THE    HOLT  LAND. 

The  Bishop  of  Waterford  has  remarked  on  Zeph.  ii. 
6,  that  many  manuscripts,  and  three  editions,  have  a  sin- 
gle letter  in  one  of  its  words  more  than  appears  in  the 
common  editions,*  which,  instead  of  cherith,  gives  us  a 
word  which  signifies  caves  ;  and  he  remarks,  that  if  we 
adopt  this  sense,  the  words  must  be  rendered, 

"And  the  seacoast  shaU  be  sheep  cotes,  >'.>(>/ln{jd<v 

Caves  for  shepherds,  And  folds  for  flocks."  j 

To  this  I  must  add,  that  this  seems  to  me  to  be  much  the 
most  natural  reading. 

I  was  just  now  taking  notice,  that  the  Eastern  shepherds 
make  use  of  caves  very  frequently  ;  sleeping  in  them,  and 
driving  also  their  flocks  into  them  at  night.  What  I 
would  add  here  is,  that  the  mountains  bordering  on  the 
Syrian  coast  are  remarkable  for  the  number  of  caves  in 
them ;  and  that  they  are  found,  in  particular,  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  Ashkelon.  I  '^f  V 

Thus  we  find,  in  the  History  of  the  Crusades,  by  the 
Archbishop  of  Tyre,  that  that  active  prince  Baldwin  I. 
after  the  death  of  his  brother  Godfrey,  and  before  his 
own  coronation  presented  himself,  with  some  troops  that 
he  had  got  together,  before  Ascalon.f    That  the  citizens 

ni*l3  fceror/i,  for  HID  kerith.    See  Dr.  Kennicott's  various  readings,  in 
^^'    Edit. 

t  Which  our  translation  readers  Ashkelon, 


CONCERNING  THEIR  LIVING  IN  TENTS.  231 

were  afraid  to  venture  out  to  fight  with  him  ;  upon  which, 
finding  it  would  be  of  no  advantage  to  continue  there,  he 
ranged  about  the  plains  which  laj  between  the  mountains 
and  the  sea,  and  found  villages,  whose  inhabitants,  having 
left  their  houses,  had  retired  with  their  wives  and  children, 
their  flocks  and  herds,  into  subterraneous  caves.  Being 
enemies,  who  had  often  made  incursions  into  the  country 
between  Ramula  and  Jerusalem,*  rendering  the  roads  dan- 
gerous, and  often  destroying  travellers,  he,  upon  hearing 
this,  ordered  fires  to  be  kindled  at  the  mouths  of  these 
caves,  that  they  might  be  forced  by  the  smoke  to  surren- 
der themselves  to  him,  or  be  suffocated.  That  not 
being  able  to  bear  the  heat  and  the  smoke,  they  did  sur- 
render to  Baldwin;  who,  answerable  to  their  deserts,  or- 
dered an  hundred  of  them  to  be  beheaded,  and  seized  on 
the  provisions  they  had  laid  in  for  themselves  and  the  cat- 
tle with  them.f  • 

This  shows  there  were  many  caves  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  Ashkelon,  or  some  very  large  ones,  to  hold 
such  a  number  of  people  as  is  here  represented  to  have 
been  found  in  them,  with  their  cattle.  It  is  then  natural, 
when  Zephaniah  is  speaking  of  Israel's  afterward  feed- 
ing their  flocks  and  herds  in  the  territory  of  Ashke- 
lon, to  understand  that  the  conveniences  they  had  there 
for  feeding  their  cattle,  consisted  in  the  caves  they  found 
in  the  neighbouring  hills  of  that  country,  and  the  shel- 
tering places  they  found  in  the  desolated  villages,  and 
even  in  Ashkelon  itself;  they  lodge  also  among  ruins, 
as  is  practised  at  this  very  day  among  the  Eastern  shep- 
herds.J 

•  Belonging  to  the  Christian  kings  of  Jerusalem. 

t  Gesta  Dei  per  Francos,  p.  781. 

+  Consequently,  if  I  might  venture  to  attempt  a  small  Tariation  from  his 
Lordship's  translation,  it  should  be  something  like  this. 

And  the  seacoast  shall  be  pastures : 
Caves  of  shepherd.^,  and  folds  for  flocks. 

For  lh«  same  woi-d  in  the  original  is  translated /»a«»ure»,  Psal»  Mi".  ~. 


2jiS  CONCERNING  THEIR  LIVING  IN    lENTS, 

The  same  historian  indeed  represents  the  country 
about  Ascalon  as  by  no  means  a  rich  soil,  buf,  on  the 
contrary,  so  sandy,  as  only  to  produce  vines  and  some  ^ 
fruit  trees  very  near  the  city  ;*  but  it  is  evident,  from 
his  own  relation  in  the  first  cited  page,f  that  the  territo- 
ry of  Ascalon  was  capable  of  feeding  large  numbers  of 
cattle,  and  had,  in  the  time  uf  Baldwin  I.  many  inhabit- 
ants whose  employment  was  the  tending  such.  The  taking 
possession  then  of  this  country  for  the  enlargement  of 
their  pastures,  upon  their  return  from  captivity,  might  be 
mentioned  by  the  Prophet  to  Israel  as  an  object  of  de- 
sire and  hope. 

OBSERVATION  XIX. 

PIETRO  DELLA  VALLE's  CURIOUS  ACCOUNT  OF  HI3  LODG- 
ING* IN    THE    WOODS    AT    MAZENDERAN. 

There  is  little  or  no  difficulty,  I  think,  in  understand* 
ing  what  the  sacred  historian  says,  concerning  Jonathan's 
visiting  David  when  concealed  from  Saul  in  a  mood,  men- 
tioned 1  Sam.  xxiii.  but  there  is  a  passage  in  the  Travels 
of  Pietro  della  Valle,  so  picturesque,  and  bearing  such  a 
resemblance  to  David's  situation,  though  not  exactly  sim- 
ilar, that  my  readers,  possibly,  may  not  be  displeased 
with  seeing  it. 

Speaking  of  his  passing  through  a  forest  or  wood  in 
Mazenderan,  a  province  of  Persia,  into  which  they  enter- 
ed on  the  11th  of  February,  and  complaining  of  the  bad- 
ness and  heaviness  of  the  roads  there,  he  tells  us,  "  We 
did  at  length  master  them,  but  with  so  much  difficulty,  that 
we  could  not  get  forward  above  two  leagues  that  day,  and 
night  overtook  us  before  we  got  through  the  forest.  We  en- 
deavoured to  find  some  place  of  retreat,  in  different  parts, 
to  which  the  barking  of  dogs,  or  the  noise  made  by  other 
animals,  seemed  to  guide  us.    But  at  last,  finding  no  in- 

•P,924.  iP.TU. 


CONCERNING  THEIR  LIVING  IN  TENTS.  233, 

habited  place  near  us,  we  passed  the  night  in  the  same 
forest,  among  the  trees,  under  which  we  made  a  kind  of 
retrenchment  with  our  baggage,  in  a  place  where  we  found 
many  dry  leaves  that  had  fallen  from  the  trees.  These 
served  us  for  a  carpet  and  for  bedding  both,  without  any, 
other  tent  than  the  branches  of  the  great  trees  there, 
through  which  the  moonshine  reached  us,  and  made  a 
kind  of  pavilion  of  cloth  and  silver.  There  was  no  want 
of  wood  for  the  making  a  great  fire,  any  more  than  of  pro- 
visions for  supper,  which  we  sent  for  from  the  nearest 
village  in  the  forest,  seated  by  the  highway  side,  where, 
after  some  contest  with  a  people,  of  a  savage  and  suspic- 
ious temper,  who  were  ready  to  come  to  blows  with  my 
messengers,  without  knowing  any  reason  why  they  should ;, 
they,  after  coming  to  a  right  understanding  with  us,  be- 
came very  civil,  would  have  lodged  us,  and  made  us  pres- 
ents J  but  on  our  refusal,  on  account  of  the  distance  of  the 
way,  the  chief  person  of  the  town,  with  the  other  princi- 
pal inhabitants,  came,  of  their  own  accord,  to  our  carap> 
laden  with  good  meat  and  other  provisions,  and  spent  the 
night  with  us  with  great  gaiety.  They  even  brought  us  a 
country  musician,  who  regaled  us  during  supper,  and  all 
night  long,  with  certain  forest  songs,  in  the  language  of 
the  country,  that  is,  of  Mazenderan,  where  a  course  kind  of 
Persian  is  spoken,  sung  to  the  sound  of  a  miserable  violin, 
which  was  sufficiently  tiresome."* 

How  picturesque  !  how  descriptive  of  David  and  his 
people's  lodging  in  a  wood,  and  the  altercations  he  may- 
be supposed  to  have  had  with  some  of  the  neighbouring 
villagers,  before  he  could  obtain  provisions  from  them ! 
Whether  Jonathan  brought  a  supply  of  bread,  meat,  and 
fruits  with  him,  and  even  his  music,  we  are  not  told  ;  but 
certainly  he  treated  David  not  only  with  friendship,  but 
something  of  deference  and  respect,  which  was  like  an  ac- 
knowledgment of  superiority. 

*TomeO.  p.217,  21S. 
VOL.  I.  30 


234  CONCERNING  THEIR  LIVING  IN  TENTS. 

"David  saw  that  Saul  was  come  out  to  seek  his  life  : 
and  David  was  in  the  wilderness  of  Ziph,  in  a  wood* 
And  Jonathan,  Saul's  son,  arose,  and  went  to  David  into 
the  wood,  and  strengthened  his  hand  in  God.  And  he 
said  unto  him.  Fear  not ;  for  the  hand  of  Saul  my  father 
shall  not  find  thee;  and  Ihou  shalt  be  kins;  over  Israel, 
and  I  shall  be  next  unto  thee :  and  that  also  Saul  my  fa- 
ther knoweth.  And  they  two  made  a  covenant  before  the 
Lord  :  and  David  abode  in  the  wood,  and  Jonathan  went 
to  his  house."* 

Certainly  Jonathan  did  not  strengthen  his  hand  in 
God,  by  giving  h\m  fresh  prophetic  assurances  of  his  after 
royalty  ;  nor  could  his  repeating  the  declarations  of  Sam- 
uel add  much  to  the  fortitude  of  David's  mind;  it  must, 
at  least,  be  the  winning  acquiescence  of  his  friend  in  the 
divine  arrangement,  which  was  so  contrary  to  the  usual 
emotions  of  the  human  heart,  as  evidently  to  show  the  fin- 
der of  God  in  it ;  and  there  might  be  a  princely  supply  of 
David's  wants  in  that  destitute  state,  which  might  greatly 
encourage  him  ;  and  the  imagination  may  even  go  so  far^ 
as  to  suppose  he  did  him  the  honour  of  complimenting  him 
with  his  music. 

At  worst,  della  Val!e*8  account  afibrds  an  amusing  de- 
scription of  his  lodging  in  a  wood. 

OBSERVATION  XX. 

A    SIMILAR    CURIOUS    ACCOUNT    OF    LODGING    IN    TfiE 
WOODS,    TAKEN    FROM    DR.    CHANDLER. 

Mean  as,  we  are  ready  to  think,  their  accommodationa 
are,  who  have  no  other  habitation  than  tents  or  caves, 
many  of  those  who  employ  themselves  in  the  East  in  tend- 
ing cattle  customarily  lie  abroad  in  the  fields  with  them, 
without  even  the  shelter  of  a  tent;  and  this  too  some  of 
them  do  when  winter  approacWes. 

*  Verse  15 — 18. 


CONCERNING  THEIR  LIVING  IN  TENTS.  236 

Dr.  Chandler  set  out,  on  his  first  excursion  from  Smyr- 
na, the  last  day  of  September,  and  travelled  nearly  the 
whole  month  of  October.  The  following  is  the  account 
he  gives  us  of  one  occurrence  in  this  journey  :  "About 
two  in  the  morning  our  whole  attention  was  fixed  by  the 
barking  of  dogs,  which,  as  we  advanced,  became  exceed- 
ingly furious.  Deceived  by  the  light  of  the  moon,  we 
now  fancied  we  could  see  a  village,  and  were  much  morti- 
fied to  find  only  a  station  of  poor  goatherds,  without  even 
ashed,  and  nothing  for  our  horses  to  eat.  They  were 
lying,  wrapped  in  iheir  thick  capots,  or  loose  coats,  by 
some  glimmering  embers  among  the  bushes  in  a  dale,  un- 
der a  spreading  tree  by  the  fold.  They  received  us  hos- 
pitably, heaping  on  fresh  fuel,  and  producing  kaimac,*or 
sour  curds,  and  coarse  bread,  which  they  toasted  for  us 
on  the  coals.  We  made  a  scanty  meal,  sitting  on  the 
ground,  lighted  by  the  fire  and  by  the  moon  ;  after  which, 
sleep  suddenly  overpowered  me.  On  waking  I  found  my 
two  companions  by  my  side,  sharing  in  the  comfortable 
cover  of  the  janizary's  cloak,  which  he  had  carefully 
spread  over  us.  I  was  now  much  struck  with  the  wild 
appearance  of  the  spot.  The  tree  was  hung  with  rustic 
utensils  ;  the  she-goats,  in  a  pen,  sneezed  and  bleated, 
and  rustled  to  and  fro;  the  shrubs  by  which  our  horses 
stood  were  leafless,  and  the  earth  bare;  a  black  cal- 
dron with  milk  was  simmering  over  the  fire  ;  and  a  fig- 
ure, more  than  ghaunt  or  savage,  close  by  us,  struggling 
on-  the  ground,  with  a  kid,  whose  ears  he  had  slit,  and 
was  endeavouring  to  cauterize  with  a  piece  of  red  hot 
iron."t 

It  think  this  may  stand  as  a  comment  on  Ezek.  xxxiv. 
25 :  /  will  make  milh  them  a  covenant  of  peace,  and 
will  cause  Ike  evil  beasts  to  cease  out  of  the  land  ;  and 
they  shetll  dwell  safely  in  the  njlderness,  and  sleep  in  the 
moods, 

'  He  frequently,  in    the  course  of  these  Travels,  mentions  these  sour 
curds,  as  ased  for  food  in  Asia. 

t  P.  157. 


236  CONCERNING  THEIR  LIVIN9  IN  TENTS. 

The  account  Chandler  has  given  is  extremely  amusins 
to  the  imagination,  and  is,  I  doubt  not,  a  faithful  represen- 
tation of  the  state  of  many  of  the  ancient  Israelilish  shep- 
herds; but  this  management  must  have  exposed  them  to 
many  dangers,  if  their  country,  at  any  time,  should  be 
overrun  with  beasts  of  prey.  The  Prophet  declares,  on 
the  part  of  God,  those  destructive  beasts  should  be  taken 
away  at  the  time  he  refers  to. 


OBSERVATION  XXI. 

*  f  -*  • 

GOAT   SKINS  USED  FOR  CARPETS  BY  THE  rOORER  ARABS. 

The  same  caution  that  has  engaged  the  Eastern  peo- 
ple in  general,  that  tend  cattle,  not  to  sleep  in  the  open 
air,  but  to  make  use  of  tents,  probably  engages  them  not 
to  sit  or  lie  in  their  tents  on  the  moist  ground,  but  to  make 
use  of  some  kind  of  carpeting. 

The  poorer  sort  of  Arabs  of  our  times  make  use  of 
mats  in  their  tents  ;*  and  other  inhabitants  of  these 
countries,  who  affect  ancient  simplicity  of  manners,  make 
use  of  goat  skina,  in  a  way  that  may  afford  an  amusing  il- 
lustration of  some  passages  of  the  Pentateuch,  which  re- 
late to  the  mode  of  living  observed  by  the  Israelites  in 
the  Wilderness. 

Dr.  Richard  Chandler,  in  his  Travels  in  Greece,  tells 
us,  that  he  saw  some  dervishes  at  Athens  sitting  on  goat 
skins ;  and  that  he  was  afterward  conducted  into  a  room 
furnished  in  like  manner,  with  the  same  kind  of  carpeting, 
where  he  was  treated  with  a  pipe  and  coffee  by  the  chief 
dervish. f 

Those  that  are  at  all  acquainted  with  Oriental  mannersr, 
in  these  later  times,  know  that  their  dervishes,  who  are 
a  sort  of  Mohammedan  devotees,  a  good  deal  resembling 
the  begging  friars  of  the  church  of  Rome,  affect  great  sim- 

•  Voy.  dans  la  Palestine,  par  de  la  Roque,  p.  176.  t  P-  ^03,  lOi; 


CONCERNING  THEIR  LIVING  IN  TENTS.  237 

plicity,  and  even  sometimes  austerity,  in  their  dress  and 
waj  of  living.  As  these  dervishes  that  Dr.  Chandler 
visited,  sat  on  goat  skins,  and  used  no  other  kind  of  car- 
pet for  the  accoQiraodation  of  them  that  visited  them  ;  so 
it  should  seem  that  the  Israelites  in  the  Wilderness  made 
use  of  skins  for  mattresses*  to  lie  upon,  and  consequently 
we  may  equally  suppose  to  sit  upon  in  the  daytime,  in- 
stead of  a  carpet. 

Skins  of  goats,  as  well  as  of  sheep  and  bullocks,  must 
have  been  among  them  very  valuable  things,  and  as  such 
the  priest  that  offered  any  burnt  offering  was  to  have  its 
skin,  Lev.  vii.  8. 

The  Bedouin  Arabs,  however,  are  not  now  unacquainted 
with  those  more  beautiful  carpets  that  are  used  in  the 
houses  of  rich  people  in  those  countries,  but  their  princes 
make  use  of  them  in  their  tents.  So  d'Arvieux  found 
the  great  Emir  of  Mount  Carmel  sitting  in  his  tent  upon  a 
Turkey  carpet,  when  he  paid  him  a  visit  by  order  of 
the  king  of  France  ;f  and  de  la  Roque,  in  giving  an 
account  of  this  journey,  describes  the  Arab  princes  as 
using  mattresses,  carpets,  &c.J  but  how  long  they  have 
made  use  of  them  in  their  tents  may  be  difficult  to 
determine. 

OBSERVATION  XXII. 

DIFFERENT    KINDS    OF    CARPETING    USED    IN    THE    EAST. 

I  HAVE  supposed  that  the  precious  clothes  for  chariots, 
mentioned  by  the  prophet  Ezekiel,^  as  carried  from  De- 
dan  to  Tyre,  meant  carpets ;  and  in  another  work  I  have 
supposed  carpets  to  have  been  as  ancient  as  the  time  of 
Solomon,  and  those  richly  wrought  with  pertinent  or  use- 
ful sentences,  agreeable  to  the  present  taste  of  the  inhab- 
itants of  the  East  :^  but  perhaps  it  may  be  imagined,  that 

"  See  Ley.  xv.  17.  f  Voy.  dans  la  Palestine,  p.  6. 

*  P.  177.  5Ch  xxvii.  20. 

U  Outlines  of  a  New  Commentary  on  Solomon's  Song,  p.  175,  &c. 


2di  COirCERNlNG  THEIR  LIVING  IN  TENTS. 

all  this  is  rather  inconsistent  with  a  passage  in  the  book 
of  Judith,  and  therefore  hardlj  to  be  admitted. 

The  passage  I  refer  to  is  as  follows  :  So  she  arose  and 
decked  herself  with  her  apparely  and  all  her  TVoman*s  at- 
tire^  and  her  maid  went  and  laid  soft  skins  on  the  ground 
for  her,  over  against  Holof ernes,  which  she  had  received 
of  Bagoas  for  her  daily  use,  that  she  might  sit  and  eat 
upon  them.     Ch.  xii.  15. 

Now  it  maj  be  said,  supposing  he  was  no  inspired,  or 
even  accurate  writer,  which  qualities  can  neither  of  thera 
be  with  truth  applied  to  him,  yet  as  an  ancient  author,  and 
one  who  appears  in  some  other  instances  to  be  tolerablj 
well  versed  in  the  aSairs  of  the  East,*  one  can  hardly  im- 
agine carpets  were  of  that  high  antiquity  I  have  formerly 
supposed,  since  he  supposes  they  were  nothing  more  than 
skins  properly  prepared,  which  were  used  in  the  tent  of 
Holofernes  himself.  Consequently,  in  his  time,  we  may 
believe  carpets  were  not  known,  for  if  they  had,  he 
would  have  introduced  them  into  the  tent  equipage  of 
this  great  general  of  Nabuchodonosor,  that  mighty  and 
splendid  Eastern  conqueror ;  and  not  described  Holofer- 
nes rather  like  a  Tartar  warrior,  than  generalissimo  of  the 
Assyrians. f 

It  may  be  said  that  so  general,  so  universal  is  the  use 
of  carpets  now,  that  even  the  great  Arab  Emir  of  Mount 
Carmel  was  found  by  d'Arvieux  sitting  in  his  tent  on  a 
Turkey  carpet  ;J  and  they  have  so  entirely  driven  out 
the  use  of  inferior  coverings  of  the  earth  to  sit  upon,  that 
we  cannot  but  suppose  they  would  have  so  far  produced  a 
like  eflfect,  as  to  have  been  used  by  Holofernes,  if  rich 

•  Such  as  tlie  heat's  being  sometimes  so  extreme  in  the  time  of  barley- 
harvest,  in  Judea,  as  to  be  fatal,  ch.  viii.  2,  3,  which  iias  been  reriiied  by 
recent  instances;  and  that  rain  might  be  hoped  for  in  an  extraordinary 
case  so  early  as  September,  after  the  snmmcr's  drought,  though  in  common 
they  fall  not  till  October,  ch.  viii.  31. 

f  I  say  of  the  Assyrians,  for  Nabuchodonosor,  whose  general  he  was,  ii 
called  king  of  the  Assyrians  in  the  book  of  Judith. 

t  Voy,  dans  la  Palestine,  p.  6. 


CONCERNING  THEIR  LIVING  IN  TENTS.  239 

carpets  had  been  as  ancient  as  the  time  of  Solomon.  Or 
if  this  historj  should  be  found  to  be  fabulous,  yet  still 
the  author,  who  must  be  supposed  to  have  lived  later 
than  the  times  of  which  he  pretended  to  write  the  history, 
consequently  would,  without  fail,  have  introduced  beau- 
tiful carpets  as  one  of  his  decorations,  if  they  bad  been  in 
frequent  use  in  the  time  in  which  he  lived. 

But  I  would  observe,  that  though  writers  take  little  no- 
tice of  them.  Sir  John  Chardin  assures  us,  that  it  is  com- 
mon in  Persia,  which  yet  he  describes  as  being  in  gener- 
al a  very  dry  country,  to  place  a  covering  of  felt  over  the 
ground  on  which  the  carpet  is  laid.  "  The  floors  are  cov- 
ered first  with  a  great  thick  felt,  and  o\  er  that  a  beautiful 
carpet,  or  two,  according  to  the  size  of  the  room.  Some 
of  these  carpets  are  sixty  feet  long,  and  so  heavy  as  scarce- 
ly to  be  carried  by  two  men."  He  adds,  "  I  have  often 
put  my  hand  under  these  pieces  of  felt  in  the  apartments 
of  Ispahan,  and  elsewhere,  which  have  been  laid  upon  the 
bare  earth,  thinking  it  would  be  impossible  that  they 
should  not  be  found  somewhat  moist;  but  I  have  con- 
stantly found  them  dry.  If  we  were  io  cover  the  ground 
after  this  manner  in  Europe  with  carpets,  we  should  find 
them  rotten  in  a  twelvemonth's  time,  in  the  greatest  part 
of  its  countries.*'* 

The  mention  of  so/?  s&ins  in  the  tent  of  Holofernea 
does  not,  I  think,  necessarily  suppose  they  might  not  be 
covered  over  with  carpets,  as  the  Persians  cover  over 
the  felt  they  use  in  their  apartments.  Or  if  it  should 
be  supposed  that  it  does,  it  only  may  be  a  proof,  that  the 
Jew  who  drew  up  this  account  lived  in  some  of  the 
moisture  provinces  of  the  East,  where  leather,  properly 
prepared,  was  made  use  of  to  prevent  the  bad  effects  of 
the  moisture  of  the  earth  on  rich  carpets,  and  drew  up  this 
history  under  the  influence  of  the  custom  of  his  native 
province. 

This  may  be  suflScient,  without  adding,  that  as  the  in- 
habitants of  these  countries  now  frequently  make  use  of 

'  Tome  2.  p.  54, 


240^  CONCERNING  THEIR  LIVING  IN  TENTS. 

fur»  for  the  edging,  or  otherwise  decorating  their  vest- 
ments, it  is  not  difficult  to  conceive  of  some  skins  being 
used  as  a  carpet,  which  would  be  not  only  very  beautiful, 
but  esteemed  extremely  precious  too,  as  well  as  thought 
very  proper  to  guard  against  the  moisture  of  the  ground 
when  residing  in  a  tent.* 


OBSERVATION  XXIII. 

FEASTS    MADE     IN     THE    EAST    ON    OCCASION    OF    SHEEF 
SHEARING. 

Though  the  festivity  of  Nabal's  sheep  shearing  is  rep- 
resented as  very  great,  yet  I  never  met  with  any  account 
of  solemnities  of  this  kind  in  books  of  travels  j  and  upon 
enquiring  of  the  Greek  gentleman  who  wrote  the  History 
of  the  Revolt  of  Ali  Bey,  I  cannot  find  that  the  Arabs  of 
that  country  are  wont  to  make  sumptuous  entertainments 
on  that  occasion :  whence  I  should  think  we  are  to  con- 
clude, that  the  wealth  of  Nabal  was  not  only  very  great, 
but  that  he  lived  in  a  princely  manner  among  his  country- 
men ;f  and  was  known  to  have  large  stores  of  provisions, 
particularly  on  such  rural  solemnities. 

Such  circumstances,  put  together,  naturally  invited 
one  in  David's  situation  to  apply  to  him,  rather  than  any 
other  in  that  part  of  the  country  ;  and  led  him  more  se- 
verely to  resent  his  insulting  neglect. 

As  to  the  feasting  of  the  modern  Arabs  on  such  occa- 
sions, Lusignan's  account  is  nothing  more  than  this,  "  that 
the  Arabs  perhaps  kill  a  lamb  at  such  times,  and  treat 
their  relations   and   friends  with  it,  together  with  new 

•  The  country  about  Babylon  is  well  known  to  have  been  veiy  marshy  ; 
and  some  of  the  provinces  adjoining  to  the  ancient  Media,  through  whose 
cities  the  ten  tribes  were  scattered,  are  described  as  very  moist  and  warm, 
Ghilan  in  particular. 

f  David  might  have  addressed  htm  as  the  children  ofHeth  did  Abraham, 
Gen.  xxii.  6,  Hear  m«,  my  lord:  thou  art  a  prince  of  God,  a  mighty  prince, 
among  ue,  ^ 


CONCERNING  THEIR  LIVING  IN  TENTS.  5*41 

cheese  and  milk,   and  so  pass   their  time  somewhat  joy- 
ouslj  on  the  occasion." 

This  is  very  different  from  the  feast  Nabal  hehl  when 
liis  sheep  were  shorn  ;*  or,  we  may  believe  from  the  en- 
tertainment Absalom  prepared  for  the  family  of  king  Da- 
Yid,  when  Amnon  was  slain. 


OBSERVATION  XXIV. 

OP    BINDING    SHEEP     IN     ORDER     TO     SHEAR    THEM,    Alf 
ILLUSTRATION    OF    FIRST    SAM.  XXV.   1,  8,  &C. 

Our  translators  suppose,  that  the  edifice  at  which  Jehu 
slew  the  brethren  of  Ahaziah,  king  of  Judah,f  was  des- 
tined to  the  sole  purpose  of  shearing  of  sheep  ;  but  as  I 
apprehend  the  terra  in  the  original  is  ambiguous,  which  is 
accordingly  literally  translated  in  the  margin,  the  house 
of  shepherd's  binding, X  it  might  be  better  to  use  some* 
less  determinate  word ;  as  the  word,  I  am  ready  to  be- 
lieve, may  signify  the  binding  sheep  for  shearing;  the 
binding  up  their  fleeces,  after  those  fleeces  taken  from  the 
sheep  beforehand  were  washed  ;  or  the  binding  the  sheep 
for  the  purpose  of  milking.  Whether  it  was  erected  for 
all  three  purposes,  or  if  only  for  one  of  them,  then  for 
which  of  the  three,  it  may  be  very  difficult  precisely  io 
say. 

A  pit  near  such  a  building  must  be  useful  in  any  of  the 
three  cases,  for  the  affording  water  for  the  sheep  that 
were  detained  there  for  some  time,  in  the  first  and  third 
case,  to  drink  ;  and  for  the  washing  the  wool  in  the  other. 

•  1  Sam.  xxT.  1,  8,  86  ;  to  which  is  to  be  added  the  account  given  of  the 
plentiful  present  made  to  David  by  Abigail,  v.  18,  which,  large  as  it  was, 
seems  not  to  have  been  missed  .by  Nabal,  at  least  did  not  prevent  his  cele* 
lirating  the  festival. 

t  2  Kings,  X.  12.  14. 

t  The   term  HpJ^  r\'3  beeth-akad,   in    the  original,   is  according  to  St. 
Jcrom,  the  name  of  a  town  belonging  to  Samaria  :  and  the  Septuagint  re- 
tain the  word  as  a  proper  name,  Ba<6ixi(A  Edit. 
VOL.    I.                            31 


CONCERNING  THEIR  LIVING  IN  TENTS. 

If  the  intention  of  the  historian  had  been  to  describe 
it  as  the  place  appropriated  to  the  shearing  of  sheep,  it 
would  have  been  natural  for  him  to  have  used  the  word 
that  precisely  expresses  that  operation,"  not  such  a  gene- 
ral term  as  the  house  of  binding. 

All  know  that  sheep  must  be  bound,  or  at  least  forcibly 
held,  in  order  to  be  shorn  ;  and  it  appears  in  the  Travels 
of  Dr.  Richard  Chandler  in  the  Lesser  Asia,  that  "  the 
shepherds  there,  sitting  at  the  uioufh  of  the  pen,  were 
wont  to  seize  on  the  ewes  and  she  goats,  each  by  the  hind 
leg,  as  they  pressed  forward,  to  milk  them  ;*  which  seiz- 
ing them,  sufficiently  shows  they  must  be  held,  shackled, 
or  somehow  bound  when  milked. 

In  another  Observation  I  have  taken  noticeof  the  read- 
iness of  great  men,  in  the  East,  to  repose  themselves, 
when  fatigued,  under  the  shelter  of  roofs  of  a  very  mean 
kind  ;  the  brethren,  it  seems,  of  Ahaziah  anciently  did  the 
same  thing.  But  they  found  no  more  safety  in  this  ob- 
scure retreat,  than  they  would  have  found  in  the  palaces 
of  either  Samaria  or  Jezreel. 

The  slaying  them  at  the  pit,  near  this  place,  seems  to 
have  been  owing  to  a  custom  at  that  time,  whether 
arising  from  superstition,  to  preserve  the  land  from  being 
deBled,  or  any  other  notion,  does  not  at  first  sight  ap- 
pear ;  but  it  was,  it  seems,  a  customary  thing  at  that  time 
to  put  people  to  death  near  Avater,  at  least  near  where 
water  was  soon  expected  to  flow,  as  appears  from  1  Kings 
xviii.  40. 

.OBSERVATION  XXV, 

iPhECAUTtOWS    TAKEN  TO  PREVENT    THE    MbVIIfG    SAIttn 

FROM    CHOAKING    UP    THEIR    WELLS. 

.t'>  Ti  ■ 

mIn  Arabia,  and  in  other  places,  they  are  wont  to  close 
and  cover  up  their  wells  of  water,  lest  the  sand,  which  is 

*  p.  273. 


CONCERNING  THEIR  LIVING  IN  TENTS.  <^J# 

put  into  motion  bj  the  winds  there,    Hke   the  water  of  a 
pond,  should  fill  them,  and  quite  stop  them  up.*  * 

This  is  the  account  Sir  J.  Chardin  gives  os  in  his  MS. 
in  a  note  on  Psal.  Ixix.  15.  I  very  much  question  the 
applicableness  of  this  custom  to  that  passage,  but  it  will 
serve  to  explain,  I  think,  extremely  well,  the  viewed 
keeping  that  well  covered  with  a  stone,  from  which  La- 
ban's  sheep  were  wont  to  be  watered  ;  and  their  care  not 
to  leare  it  open  any  time,  but  to  stay  fill  the  flocks  were 
all  gathered  together,  before  they  opened  it,  and  then, 
having  drawn  as  much  water  as  was  requisite,  to  cover  it 
up  again  immediately.  Gen.  xxix.  2,  8. 

Bishop  Patrick  supposed  it  was  done  io  keep  the  water 
clean  and  cool.  Few  people,  I  imagine,  will  long  hesitate 
in  determining  which  most  probably  was  the  view  in  keep- 
ing the  well  covered  with  so  much  care.  ^ 

All  this  care  of  their  water  is  certainly  very  requisite, 
since  they  have  so  little,  that  Chardin  in  another  part  of 
his  MS.  supposes,  "  that  the  strife  between  Abraham's 
herdmen  and  Lot'sf  was  rather  about  water,  than  pastur- 
age ;"  and  immediately  after  observes,  "  that  when  they 
are  forced  to  draw  the  wafer  for  very  large  flocks,  out  of 
one  well,  or  two,  it  must  take  up  a  great  deal  of  time." 

.,,_,  OBSERVATION  XXVI. 

rHB    SAME    SUBJECT    CONTINUED,    IN    ILLUSTRATION    Of 
GEN.    XXIX.    1,  &C. 

Chardin  also  gives  us  to  understand,  in  the  sixth 
Vol.  of  his  MS.  that  he  has  known  wells  or  cisterns  of 
water  locked  up  in  the  East ;  and  if  not,  that  some  per- 
son is  so   far  the    proprietor,  that  no  one  dares  to  open  a 

well  or  cistern,  but  in  his    presence.     He  has  often,  he 

» 

*  This  and  the  following  Observation  make  DAvitl's  indulgence  to  Nabal'i 
■eryants  appear  very  meritorious. 

I  r.cn.  xiii.  7. 


244  CONCERNING  THEIR  LIVING  IN  TENl'S. 

says,  seen  them  make  use  of  such  precautions,  in  divers 
parts  of  Asia,  on  account  of  the  real  scarcity  of.  mater, 
there.  » llsWfc* 

a,  He  applies  this  account  of  Jacob's  watering  Rachel's 
flock,  Gen.  xxix  :  supposing  that  Rachel  had  the  key ; 
or  that  they  dared  not  to  open  it  but  in  her  presence. 
This  representation  of  matters  seems  much  preferable  to 
that  of  those,  who  suppose  the  stone  was  of  such  a  weight 
as  not  to  be  moved,  but  by  the  joint  strength  of  several 
shepherds,  but  that  Jacob  had  strength  or  address  suffi- 
cient to  remove  it  alone  ;  or  supposing  that  he  a  stranger 
ventured  to  break  a  standing  rule  for  watering  the  flocks, 
which  the  natives  did  not  dare  to  do,  and  this  without 
opposition,  or,  so  far  as  appears,  so  much  as  contradic- 
tion :  the  Eastern  peopJe  were  not  /wont  to  be  so  tame,  see 
Gen.  xix.  9.      f'  ?<>  iu»/n«^  arft  l^i-jsiMi^laUfMi: 

l*tH>  dBfeERVAHON^XXVil. 

STRENGTH  OF  THE  CLANS  BELONGING  TO  THE  ARAB 

If  we  should  turn  our  thoughts  to  the  strength  of  an 
Arab  emir,  or  the  number  of  men  they  command,  we  shall 
nnd  it  is  not  very  great,  and  that  were  Abraham  now 
alive,  and  possessed  of  the  same  degree  of  strength  that 
he  had  in  his  time,  he  would  still  be  considered  as  a 
prince  among  them,  and  might,  perhaps,  even  be  called 
a  mighty  prince,  he  having  three  hundred  and  eighteen 
servants  able  to  bear  arms,  Gen,  xiv.  14,  especially  in  the 
Eastern  complimental  style :  for  this  is  much  like  the 
strength  of  those  Arab  emirs  of  Palestine  d'Arvieux  vis- 
ited. 

There  were  according  to  him  eighteen  emirs  or  princes 
that  governed  the  Arabs  of  Mount  Carmel ;  the  grand 
emir,  or  chief  of  these  princes,  encamped  in  the  middle, 
the  rest  round  about  him,  at  one  or  two  leagues  distance 
from  him,  and  from  each  other ;  each  of  these  «mirs  had 


CONCERNING  THEIR  LIVING  IN  TENTS.  249 

a  number  of  Arabs  particularly  attached  to  him,  who  call- 
ed themselves  his  servants,  and  were  properly  the  troops 
each  emir  commanded  when  they  fought ;  and  when  all 
these  divisions  were  united,  they  made  up  between  four 
and  five  thousand  fighting  men.*  Had  each  of  these 
emirs  been  equal  in  strength  to  Abraham,  their  number 
of  fighting  men  must  have  bden  near  six  thousand,  for 
three  hundred  and  eighteen,  the  number  of  his  servants^ 
multiplied  by  eighteen,  the  number  of  those  emirs,  make 
five  thousand  seven  hundred  and  twentyfour;  but  they 
were  but  between  four  and  five  thousand,  so  that  they  had 
but  about  two  hundred  and  fifty  each,  upon  an  average. 
Abraham  then  was  superior  in  force  to  one  of  these  emirs. 
The  Arab  clans  are  not,  most  certainly,  equal  in  num- 
ber :  Egmont  and  Heyman  expressly  observef  that  the 
three  clans,  defenders  of  the  convent  of  Mount  Sinai,  dif- 
fered from  each  other  in  this  point,  the  second  being  more 
numerous  than  the  first,  and  the  third  than  the  second  ; 
but  it  seems  that  they  are  often  not  more  numerous  than 
Abraham's  family  was.  Several  Arabian  tribes  can 
bring  no  more  than  three  or  four  hundred  horses  into  the 
field,  Dr.  Shaw  says  :J  so  that  it  is  no  wonder  that  Abra- 
ham was  considered  in  ancient  days  as  a  considerable 
prince,  at  the  head  of  a  powerful  clan ;  should  have  his 
alliance  courted ;  Gen.  xx.  22,  and  make  war  in  his  own 
name.  Aner,  Eshcol,  and  Mamre,  his  confederates, 
■were,  I  suppose,  neighbouring  emirs  at  the  head  of  con- 
siderable clans  also,  with  whom  Abraham  was  leagued, 
and  who  made  up  together  a  formidable  power  in  those 
times. 

Hebcr  the  Kenite,  in  the  time  of  the  Judges,  appears 
to  have  been  in  like  manner  a  powerful  emir,  but  separat- 
ed on  some  account  or  other  from  the  rest  of  the  emirs  of 

•  Voy.  dans  la  Pal.  p.  103—108. 

I  See  the  last  edition  of  those  Travels. 

^P.  169.    And  saoh  u  clan,  according  to  kim  there,  possesies  frequent* 
1v  as  large  a  number  of  cattle  as  Job  was  roaster  of. 


246  CONCETINING  THEIR  LIVING  IN  TENTS, 

his  nation,  as  the  Arab  princes  of  these  times  frequentlj 
have  great  misunderstandings  with  each  other,  and  are 
divided  by  separate  interests.  And  if  the  Grand  Seign- 
ior, powerful  as  he  is,  courts  the  modern  Arab  emirs  ast 
we  know  he  does,  it  can  be  no  wonder  that  such  a  prince 
as  Jabin,  when  he  distressed  Israel,  chose  to  continue  in 
peace  with  Heber,  who  living  in  tents,  was  more  able  to 
elude  the  vexations  of  Jabin  on  the  one  hand,  and  to  per- 
plex him  on  the  other  ;  nay,  it  is  not  impossible  that  his 
detaching  himself  from  the  rest  of  the  Kenites  might  be 
owing  to  the  intrigues  of  Jabin,  as  the  present  misunder- 
standings of  the  Arab  clans  are  frequently  caused  by  the 
artiSces  of  the  Turks.  '  ^<'  /^»  n/ii  ii'jO»*i^«v%i!*'*ib!i 

But  though  Abraham  was  a  man  of  power,  and  did  upon 
occasion  make  war,  yet  I  hope  a  remark  I  before  made 
concerning  him  will  be  remembered  here,  that  is,  that  he 
was  a  pacihc  emir  notwithstanding,  at  least,  that  he  by  no 
means  resembled  the  modern  Arabs  in  their  acts  of  dep- 
redation and  violence. 
•^  4tffi!ftD  rfi»<ii^#||«#  ;«|v({CRi;3a»  "if^il^uoaic  »  aiai^^^ 

OBSERVATION  XXVIII. 

flBPARATE    TENTS    FOR    DIFFERENT    BRANCHES    OF    TH** 
SAME    FAMILY. 

In  the  smallness  of  their  clans,  and  in  tHeir  terribleness 
to  those  of  a  more  settled  kind  of  life,  there  is  some  re- 
semblance between  the  Arabs  and  the  Indians  of  North 
America;  shall  we,  therefore,  suppose  there  is  a  conform- 
ity between  the  emirs  of  the  one,  and  the  sachems  of  the 
other,  as  to  slovejtliness  in  the  way  of  living? 

The  Journal  of  the  Prefetto  of  the  missionaries  de  pro- 
paganda 6de,  published  by  the  late  Bishop  of  Clogher, 
seems  to  suppose  this,  which  has  given  me,  I  confess,  a 
good  deal  of  offence :  for  speaking  of  the  tents  of  the 
Arabs,   the  Journal  says,*  "They  are  subdivided  into 

^       •'^'P.«. 


CONCERNING  THEIR  LIVING  IN  TENTS.  24f' 

three  apartments;  in  the  most  retired  of  which,  the  wo- 
wen  have  their  residence  ;  in  the  middle,  some  of  the  men 
and  women  live  promiscuously  ;  and  in  the  outermost  are 
kept  all  the  beasts  and  cattle  of  the  field,  the  cocks,  and 
hens,  and  goats :  which  seemed  to  me  to  be  a  lively  rep- 
resentation of  the  manner  of  habitation  practised  by  the 
ancient  patriarchs,  Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob."  Did 
they  then  and  their  cattle  and  their  poultry  all  live  togeth- 
er in  the  same  tent  ?  One  would  imagine  the  Prefetto 
meant  so,  when  he  said  this  wretched  way  of  living,  of 
the  vulgar  Arabs,  seemed  to  him,  a  lively  representation 
of  that  of  the  Patriarchs;  but  it  cannot  be  just,  since  we 
know  from  their  history  that  Sarah  had  a  tent  to  herself, 
which  Rebekah  afterward,had  for  her  separate  use,  Gen. 
xxiv.  67.  jsBiftifr.a  «w  niteni  9' i-'IfjasiO 

The  way  of  living  of  the  Patriarchs  may  be  much  more 
truly  learnt  from  d'Arvieux's  account  of  the  Arabs,  who 
tells  us  indeed,  that  among  the  Arabs  the  men  and  cattle 
lodge  together  in  the  winter  time,  on  account  of  warmth, 
for  which  reason  they  encamp  in  vallies  or  on  the  sea 
shore,  upon  the  sand,  in  order  to  avoid  the  inconvenience 
of  mire  ;*  but  then,  though  the  common  Arabs  live  after 
this  inelegant  manner,  especially  in  the  winter,  he  informs 
us  that  their  emirs  or  princes  live  very  diflferently  ;  that 
they  have  always  two  tents,  one  for  themselves,  the  other 
for  their  wives,  besides  a  number  of  small  ones  for  their 
domestics,  together  with  a  tent  of  audience.  How  differ- 
ent a  picture  of  the  Arabs  does  this  give  us !  Is  it  not 
much  more  reasonable  to  suppose  that  the  accommoda* 
tions  of  an  emir  of  these  times,  such  as  la  Roque  gives  us 
account  of  from  d'Arvieux,  is  a  representation  of  the  way 
of  living  of  the  Patriarchs,  who  were  treated  as  princes 
by  the  people  of  those  couatri^s,  than  the  tent  of  a  vulgar 
Arab  ?  ->     f. 

As  to  a  separate  tent  for   their  wives,  we  are  sure  the 
mode  is  the  same;  and  probably  the  same  may  be  said  as 

•  Voy.  dans  In  Pal.  p.  175. 


249  CONCERmNG  THEIR  LIVING  IN  TENTS. 

tathe  other  accommodations  of  the  Arab  emirs,  which 
•re  very  different,  according  to  d'Arvieux,  in  Palestine, 
from  those  of  the  ordinary  people  of  that  nation,  at  least  if 
we  make  some  abatement,  for  the  earliness  of  the  time  in 
which  the  Patriarchs  lived.  The  common  Arabs,  accord- 
ing to  him,  have  only  some  mats  on  which  they  lie,*  and 
some  coverlets ;  seldom  any  cushion,  a  stone  serving  them 
for  a  bolster:  but  their  princes  are  much  better  furnish- 
ed, they  have  quilts,  carpets,  coverlets  of  all  sorts,  and 
some  very  beautiful,  stitched  with  gold  and  silk,  and 
others  woven  and  embroidered  with  flowers  of  gold  and 
silver,  like  those  of  the  Turks,  and  extremely  handsome  ; 
they  sew  fine  white  sheets  to  the  coverlets,  and  have 
others  striped  with  several  colours  to  put  underneath, 
&c.f  Sanctius  seems  to  have  thought  it  incredible  that 
there  should  be  any  elegance  in  Arab  tents  ;J  but  d'Ar- 
vieux,  an  eyewitness,  gives  a  rery  different  account. 

After  all,  I  believe  this  passage  of  the  Prefetto's  was 
merely  owing  to  inattention,  and  no  ways  designed  to  les- 
sen the  honor  of  those  progenitors  of  the  Israelitish  na- 
tion ;  but,  as  it  is  monstrously  inaccurate,  I  cannot  pass  it 
by  in  silence. 

OBSERVATION  XXIX. 

TRADE  CARRIED  ON  BY   THE  ARABS  IN  CATTLE,  BUTTER, 
CHEESE,  &C. 

i  HAVE  supposed  that  Abraham  lived  with  all  the  ele- 
gance of  a  modern  Arab  emir,  or  at  least  with  no  other 

•  Sir  J.  Chardin  in  his  sixth  MS.  gires  a  somewhat  different  account ; 
for  having  said  that  their  tents  are  in  common,  black,  made  of  goats'  hair, 
and  pretty  high,  he  adds,  that  they  are  adorned  below,  to  the  height  of 
four  feet,  with  mats  made  of  reeds.  Harmer,  Dr.  Russell,  in  his  MS. 
note,  confirms  Ghardin's  account.  Edit. 

t  P.  176,  177. 
if  Tide  Poli  Syn.  in  Cant.  i.  5.    Quis  credat  tabernacula  Cedar  pulchra 
faisse,  quse  tnhHbitabaat  paatores,  geuus  hoouauiu  iacultum  et  sgreste  ? 


^dVcteilMllib'']rtiEIR  LIVING  IN  TfeNti.'  249 

abatements  than  what  arose  from  his  great  antiquitj,  and  I 
think  wifh  reason,  since  I  have  shown  that  he  had  a  dis- 
tinct tent  for  Sarah,  which  is  one  great  reason  at  present ; 
and  I  tind  it  expressly  said  that  Abraham  was  very  rich 
in  silver  and  in  gold,  as  well  as  in  cattle,  Gen.  xiii.  2; 
and  consequently  he  was  able  to  procure  the  ancient  ele- 
gancies of  his  way  of  life,  as  well  as  the  modern  Arab 
princes  are  theirs.  This,  perhaps,  we  may  think  strange, 
and  may  have  imagined,  as  the  Prefetto  seems  to  have 
done,  that  Abraham  lived  in  a  sordid  plenty  :  abundance 
of  food  by  means  of  his  flocks  and  herds,  but  unattended 
with  silver  or  gold,  and  the  elegancies  that  generally  go 
along  with  them.  If  we  did,  it  was  certainly  very  erro- 
neously.* 

Authors  have  sufficiently  explained  how  these  acqui- 
sitions might  be  made.  So  Dr.  Russell  tells  us,  that  the 
people  of  Aleppo  are  supplied  with  the  greater  part  of 
their  butter,  their  cheese,  and  their  cattle  for  slaughter, 
by  the  Arabs,  Rushwans,  or  Turcomans,  who  travel  about 
the  country  with  their  flocks  and  their  herds  as  the  Pat- 
riarchs did  of  old.f  The  Patriarchs  doubtless  suppli«  d 
the  ancient  cities  of  Canaan,  in  like  manner,  with  these 
things.  Ilamor  expressly  speaks  of  their  trading  with 
his  people,  Gen.  xxxiv.  21. 

At  the  sirae  time  that  the  Arabs  receive  money  for 
their  commodities,  their  expenses  are  very  small,  so  that 
their  princes  are  rich  in  silver  and  gold  as  well  as  cattle, 
and  amass  large  quantities  of  these  precious  metals  ;  inso- 
much that  la  Roque  remarks,  that  in  the  lime  of  Pliny, 
the  riches  both  of  the  Parthians  and  Romans  were  in  a 
manner  melted  down  among  the  Arabs,  to  use  that  ex- 
pression, they  turning  every  thing  into  money,  without 
parting  with  any  of  it  again. J 

•"The    Ar.ibs,"  says   Dr.  Kiissell,   MS.   note,  "on  ttie   skirts  of  tlic 
Desert,  who  have  commnnlcation    witli    the   Turkish   governors  and  larg« 
cities,  adopt  some  of  the  Turkish  luxtiries."         Edit. 
t  Vol  i.  p.  165,  388,  Kcc 
i  Voy.  dans  la  Pal.  p.  J  57.  dans  la  note.     "The  Arabs  at  this  time,"  says 
Dr.  Riisstll,  MS.  note,  **  were  a  commercial  people-" 
VOL.    I.  ',i'2 


250  CONCERNING  THEIR  LIVING  IN  TENTS. 

Abraham's  expenses,  like  those  of  the  Arabs,  by  no 
liieans  equalled  bis  profits,  he  was  therefore  continually 
making  acquisitions  of  money  current  with  the  merchant, 
Gen.  xxiii.  16  j  or  of  such  precious  commodities  as  were 
easy  of  carriage,  and  suited  to  his  way  of  life.  And  more 
especially  might  he  do  this  in  Egypt,  where,  as  be- 
ing a  rich  country,  bis  exchanging  his  cattle  might  be 
more  advantageous  to  him  than  usual.  For  which  rea- 
son, perhaps,  his  being  rich  in  silver  and  gold  is  mention- 
ed immediately  after  his  return  from  thence. 

To  these  accounts  may  be  added,  that  given  us  in  the 
sixth  volume  of  the  MS.  papers  of  Sir  J.  Chardin,  and  it 
is  so  curious  that  1  cannot  but  here  insert  it.  After  hav- 
ing remarked  in  general,  that  they  that  travel  in  the  East 
will  now  often  see  a  picture  of  Palriarchal  history,  he 
goes  on  to  inform  us,  "that  their  cattle  are  all  their  riches, 
and  engage  all  their  attention,  particularly  their  flocks  of 
sheep  and  goats,  for  they  are  not  so  much  concerned  about 
camels,  horses,  and  asses,  though  they  have  ihem  in  great 
numbers,  as  well  as  oxen,  for  the  carriage  of  their  portable 
cities,  as  they  call  their  tents,  which  are  in  common  black, 
and  made  of  goats'  hair.  As  to  their  manner  of  living, 
what  is  said,  Gen.  xiii.  2,  Abram  was  very  rich  in  cattle, 
in  silverf  and  in  goldf  ought  Hot  to  give  us  any  pain,  for 
these  powerful  shepherds  are  able  to  gather  much  toselh- 
er  by  the  sale  of  their  cattle,  butter,  milk,  and  its  depen- 
dencies, which  their  goats  produce,  for  in  the  East  the 
greatest  part  of  (he  butter  is  made  of  goats'  and  sheeps' 
milk  ;  and  of  the  wool  of  their  flocks,  and  of  what  they 
manufacture  from  it  :  they  sell  all  these  things  in  the 
neighbouring  towns  ;  and  as  for  themselves  they  spend 
very  little,  their  flocks  support  them,  and  the  land,  of 
which  they  cultivate  as  much  as  they  have  occasion  for. 

"  I  have  seen  in  Persia  and  in  Turkey,  where  the  coun- 
try is  full  of  these  Turcomans,  their  chiefs  going  along 
with  a  great  train,  very  well  clothed,  and  very  well  mount- 
ed.    I  saw  one  between  Parthia   and  Hyrcania,  whose 


CONCERNING  THEIR  LIVING  IN  TENTS.  251 

train  surprised  and  alarmed  me.  He  had  more  than  ten 
led  horses,  all  their  harness  of  solid  gold  and  silver.  He 
was  accompanied  by  many  shepherds  on  horseback,  and 
well  armed.  Their  rustic  mien  and  tanned  complexions 
caused  me  at  first  to  take  them  for  robbers;  but  I  was 
soon  undeceived.  They  treated  me  civilly,  and  answer- 
ed all  the  questions  my  curiosity  prompted  me  to  put  to 
them,  upon  their  manner  and  way  of  life.  The  whole 
country,  for  ten  leagues,  was  full  of  flocks  that  belonged 
to  them.  An  hour  after  I  saw  his  wives,  and  those  of  the 
principal  of  his  attendants,  passing  along  in  a  row.  There 
were  four  in  cajavehs ;  these  are  great  square  cunes,  car- 
ried two  imon  a  camel,  which  were  not  close  covered. 
The  rest  were  on  camels,  on  asses,  and  on  horseback  ; 
most  of  t||em  with  their  faces  unveiled  ;  I  saw  some  very 
beautiful  i^omen  among  them." 

This  account  is  a  valuable  addition  to  this  Observation, 
and  gives  us  some  particulars  that  might  be  introduced  in 
other  places  of  this  book;  but  my  reader  will  remember 
them,  without  citiug  this  account  afresh  there. 


OBSERVATION  XXX. 

OF    THE    TURCOMANS,  AND  THEIR    IMMENSE    FLOCKS    OF 
CATTLE. 

The  same  MS.  gives  us  an  astonishing  account  of  the 
nuinerousness  of  some  of  these  flocks,  soon  after  the  pre- 
ceding citation,  as  well  as  mentions  the  different  colours 
of  their  sheep. 

"It  is  a  wonderfid  thing  to  see  these  Turcomans  pass, 
when  they  go  from  one  country  to  another.  They  are 
sometimes  three  or  four  days  in  passing.  I  saw  a  clan  of 
them  pass  along  two  days'  distance  from  Aleppo.  Tiie 
whole  country  was  covered  by  them.  Many  of  their 
principal  people,  whom  I  spoke  to  on  the  road,  assured 


252  CONCERNING  THEIR  LIVING  IN  TENTS. 

me  that  there  were  four  hundred  thousand  beasts  of  car- 
riage, camels,  horses,  asses,  oxen,  and  cows,  and  three 
millions  of  sheep  and  goals."*  The  number,  if  their  ac- 
count was  to  be  depended  upon,  is  truly  amazing  to  us, 
Europeans ;  but  upon  comparing  these  numbers  with  Dr. 
Shaw's  accountf  of  the  Barbary  flocks  and  herds,  they 
will  not  appear  at  all  incredible. 

Their  sheep  are  not  all  of  one  colour,  it  seems,  for 
speaking  in  the  same  page,  of  the  two  famous  princely 
races,  distinguished  from  each  other  by  the  appellations 
of  the  black  sheep  and  the  white  sheep,  he  tells  us,  they 
were  originally  shepherds,  though  afterward  possessed 
of  considerable  territories,  and  that  they  distinguished 
these  two  families  by  these  appellations,  becau^be  all  the 
cattle  with  white  wool  were  taken  by  one  family,  and  the 
other  had  the  rest,  by  an  agreement  very  like  that  made 
between  Jacob  and  Laban,  mentioned  in  the  30(h  of  Gen- 
esis. I  do  not  remember  that  d'Herbelot,  who  mentions 
these  two  houses  frequently,  has  any  where  given  us  so 
clear  an  account  of  the  reason  of  these  names  of  distinction  ; 
which  is  a  circumstance,  however,  that  deserves  to  be 
taken  notice  of,  as  it  shows  a  very  considerable  number 

•  In  the  original  it  is  three  millions,  des  bestea  k  come,  horned  cattle. 
By  that  term  we  indeed  commonly  mean  neat  beasts,  but  as  he  had  men- 
tioned before  oxen  and  cows,  and  elsewhere  teils  us,  they  have  most  sheep 
and  goats,  he  evidently  means  them. 

+  Dr.  Shaw's  account  is  as  follows  :  "  Besides  this  great  variety  of  cattle, 
we  may  observe  further,  that  each  kind  is  very  numerous  and  prolific. 
Several  Arabian  tribes,  who  can  bringno  more  than  three  or  four  hundred 
horses  into  the  field,  are  possessed  of  more  than  so  many  thousand  camels, 
and  triple  the  number  ol'  sheep  and  black  cattle.  The  Arabs  rarely  dimin- 
ish their  flocks  by  using  them  for  food,  but  live  chiefly  upon  bread,  dates, 
milk,  butter,  or  what  ihey  receive  in  exchange  for  their  wool.  Such  cat- 
tle as  are  brought  to  their  fairs,  or  to  the  neighbouring  towns  and  villages, 
are  very  inconsiderable,  when  compared  with  the  yearly  increase.  By 
proper  care  therefore,  and  attendance,  nay,  if  these  numerous  flocks  and 
herds  had  shelter  from  the  inclemency  of  the  weather  during  a  small  part 
only  of  the  winter  season,  this  whole  country,  in  a  few  years,  would  be 
overrun  with  cattle." 

Dr.  Hussell,  MS.  note,  says,  '•  Vast  flocks  pass  Aleppo  every  year,  and 
the  proprietors  sell  their  sheep  for  the  supply  of  the  city."    Edit. 


CONCERNING  THEIR  LIVING  IN  TENTS.  263- 

of  modern  Eastern  sheep  are  not  white,  since  the  family 
of  the  black  sheep  were  willing  to  accept  them,  as,  along 
with  other  cattle,  not  an  improper  portion  for  them  in  di- 
vidins  their  substance. 


OBSERVATION  XXXI. 

THEIR    MANNER    OF    PILLAGING    THE    CARAVANSk 

The  manner  in  which  the  Arabs  harrass  the  caravans 
of  the  East,  is  described  in  the  same  page.  He  tells  u8 
there,  "  that  the  manner  of  their  making  war,  and  pillag- 
ing the  caravans  is,  to  keep  by  the  side  of  them,  or  to 
follow  them  in  the  rear,  nearer  or  furthjrpff,  according  to 
their  forces,  which  it  is.  very  easy  to  do  in  Arabia,  whict 
is  one  great  plain,  and  in  the  night  they  silently  fall  upon 
the  camp,  and  carry  off  one  part  of  it  before  the  rest  are 
got  under  arms." 

He  supposes  that  Abraham  fell  upon  the  camp  of  the 
four  kings,  that  had  carried  away  Lot,  precisely  in  the 
sa<iie  Arab  manner,  and  by  that  means,  with  unequal 
forces,  accomplished  his  design,  and  rescued  Lot.  Gen. 
xiv.  15,  he  thinks,  shows  this  ;  and  he  adds,  that  it  is  to  be 
remembered,  that  the  combats  of  the  age  of  Abraham 
more  resembled  a  tight  among  the  mob,  than  the  bloody 
and  destructive  wars  of  Europe. 

OBSERVATION  XXXII. 

SUDDE^    removes    of     the    ARABS    INJURIOUS    TO    THE 
YODN6    OF    their    FLOCKS. 

Prepared  as  the  Arabs  are  for  speedy  flight,  a  quick 
motion  is  very  destructive  to  the  young  of  their  flocks. 

A  passage  of  the  same  part  of  that  MS.  proves  this, 
and  at  the  same  time  shows  the  energy  of  those  words  of 


254  •  CONCERNING  THEIR  LIVING  IN  TENTS. 

Jacob's  apology  to  his  brother  Esau,  for  not  allending 
him.  Thefiocks  and  herds  with  young  are  with  wie,  and 
if  men  should  overdrive  them  one  day,  all  the  flock  will 
die.  Gen.  xxxiii.  13.  "Their  flocks,"  says  Sir  John, 
speaking  of  those  who  now  live  in  the  East  after  the  Pat- 
riarchal manner,  "  feed  down  the  places  of  their  en- 
campments so  quick,  by  the  great  numbers  which  they 
have,  that  they  are  obliged  to  remove  them  too  often, 
which  is  very  destructive  to  their  flocks,  on  account  of 
the  young  ones,  which  have  not  strength  enough  to  fol- 
low." 

OBSERVATION  XXXIII. 

OF  THE  DIFFERENT  DOMESTIC  UTENSILS  OF  THE  ARABS. 

Besides  the  mats  and  the  coverlets  of  the  common 
Arab  fents,  which  I  took  nolite  of  under  a  preceding  Ob- 
servation, la  Roque  mentions^  hair  sacks,  and  trunks  and 
baskets  covered  with  skin,  to  put  up  and  carry  their 
things  in;  which  are  kettles  or  pots,  great  woodenf  bowls, 
handmills,  and  pitchers.  With  these  they  content  them- 
selves, and  they  are  all  their  furniture  in  common,  or  near- 
ly SOe 

I  mention  them  distinctly,  because  this  account  seems 
to  explain,  in  a  clearer  manner  than   commentators  have 

•  Voy.  dans  ]a  Pal.  p.  ITC,  and  p.  178. 

\  The  French  word  is  gamelles,  which  ihe  English  translator  supposes 
signified  close  wicker  baskets,  but  as  this  word  is  used  by  the  same  author 
for  the  vessel  into  which  they  pour  their  soup,  p.  199,  somethiHgofa  very 
different  nature  must  be  intended  by  it;  and  as  wooden  bowls  are  particu- 
larly mentioned  with  their  pot  and  kettle  by  other  travellers,  see  Shaw,  p. 
231,  and  are,  indeed,  quite  necessary  to  them,  one  would  have  been  induced 
to  believe  that  la  Roque  meant  them,  had  he  not  so  explained  himself,  in  p. 
204,  as  that  this  translator  there  renders  the  passage,  "  Three  or  four 
plggins,  or  great  wooden  bowls-" 

Gamelle  signifies  a  sort  of  wooden  platter  used  aboard  vessels  and  in 
camps,  for  serving  up  victuals  in.  Hence  manger  a  la  gamelle,  signifies  t« 
eat  at  the  soldiers'  »r  sailers'  mess.    £dit. 


CONCERNING  THEIR  LIVING  IN  TENTS.  255 

done,  who  are,  indeed,  in  a  manner  silent  upon  those  texts, 
the  passages  which  describe  the  furniture  of  the  habita- 
tions of  Israel  in  the  Wilderness.  Upon  whatsoever  any 
oftheniy  when  they  are  dead,  doth  fall,  it  shall  be  tmclean, 
Lev.  xi.  32,  33,  whether  it  be  any  vessel  of  rvoodt  their 
Wooden  bowls,  (hat  is,  according  to  this  representation  of 
the  utensils  of  those  that  live  in  tents,  to  which  there  is  rea- 
son to  believe  those  of  the  Israelites  were  like,  who  lived 
so  many  jears  like  Arabs  in  the  wilderness  ;  or  raiment, 
or  skin,^  any  trunks  or  baskets  covered  with  skj^^,  (hat 
is  ;  or  sack,  anj  hair  cloth  sack  used  for  the  better  carry- 
ing goods  from  place  to  place ;  whatsoever  vessel  it  6e, 
wherein  any  work  is  doHe,f  it  must  be  put  into  water, 
and  it  shall  he  vnclean  vntil  the  evening  ;  so  it  shall  he 
cleansed.  And  every  earthen  vessel,  the  pilchers  used  for 
holding  liquids,  and  drinking  out  of,  whereinto  any  of 
them  fallelh,  whatsoever  is  in  it  shall  be  unclean,  and  ye 
shall  break  i7.  J 

The  account  of  la  Iloque  may  then  serve  for  an  amus- 
ing explanation  of  these  passages;  and  I  believe  will  be 
allowed  to  be  a  more  natuial  illustradon  of  them  than  that 
of  (he  Rabbins,^  who  suppose  thai  (he  work  of  goats,  which 
our  translators  determine  (o  mean  goats'  hair,  implies  in- 
struments made  of  the  horns,  and  hoofs,  and  bones  of  goats, 
few  or  no  such  instruments  being  to  be  found  among  those 
that  now  dwell  in  tents.  There  is  the  like  pleasing  sim- 
plicity in  explaining  the  vessels  of  wood  of  their  wooden 
bowls,  instead  of  reckoning  up  all  the  particular  things 
that  were  afterward  made  of  wood  in  the  most  remote 
sense  of  the  word,  as   Maimonides  has  done,  who  intro- 

•  "Goat  skins,"  says  Dr.  Rassell,  "in   which  they  churn   their  butter, 
transport  water,  milk,"  fete,  MS.  note.    Edit. 

f  "  The  trunks  covered  with  skins  are  called  snpeta  ;  &3  these  could  not 
well  be  put  into  water,  the  others  probably  were  meant."     Ibid. 

^  Might  not  their  vessels  made  of  dried   cow's   duny,  bo  included  here? 
Russell,  ibid.  ' 

S  See  Aiosworth  upon  Uicsc  passages. 


2SS  CONCERNING  THElfe  LlViNfe  I^^KtS. 

duces  (he  mention  of  vessels  of  bulrushes,  of  reeds,  oTThe 
shells  of  nuts,  and  the  bark  of  trees.  Things  that  were 
not  in  use,  we  have  reason  to  think,  in  these  migratory" 
families,  and  consequently  not  immediately  referred  toby 
Moses  ;  and  if  so,  not  coming  under  the  observation  of  a 
commentator,  however  they  may  with  propriety  enough 
engage  the  attention  of  a  Jewish  casuist. 

But  though  the  bowls  and  dishes  of  the  vulgar  Arabs 
are  of  wood,  those  of  their  emirs  are,  not  unfrequenfly,  of 
copp^i,  tinned  very  neatly :  la  Roque  takes  notice  of 
this  circumstance  in  more  places  than  one.*  I  have  met 
with  a  like  account,  I  think,  in  other  travellers.  May  we 
not  believe  that  the  vessel  which  Jael  made  use  of,  to  pre- 
sent buttermilk  to  Sisera,  and  which  Deborah  in  her  hymn 
calls  a  lordly  dish,f  or  a  dish  of  nobles,  was  of  this  sort  ? 
Her  husband  certainly  was  an  Arab  emir  ;  the  working  of 
Di€tals  much  more  ancient  than  her  time.  Gen.  iv.  22 ;  and 
the  mere  size  of  the  vessel  hardly  could  be  the  thing  in- 
tended. La  Roque,  indeed,  tells  us,J  that  the  fruits  that 
were  brought  in  at  the  collation,  that  the  grand  emir  of  the 
Arabs,  whom  he  visited,  treated  him  with,  were  placed  in 
a  large  painted  basin  of  wood  ;  its  being  painted  was, 
without  doubt,  a  mark  of  honor  set  on  this  vessel  of  the 
grand  emir,  which  distinguished  it  from  the  wooden  bowls 
of  the  commonality  ;  but  a  painted  wooden  vessel  would 
have  been  not  so  proper  for  buttermilk,  as  one  of  copper 
tinned,  which  therefore  most  probably  was  the  sort  Jael 
used. 

OBSERVATION  XXXIV. 

BOTTLES    MADE    OF    SKINS,     USED    IN    THE    EAST. 

The  preceding  list  of  Arab  utensils  is  not  complete  ; 
bowever,  as    I    insinuated  under   the  last  Observation, 

•  Voy.  dans  la  Pal.  p.  .178,  and  p.  24.  f  Judges  v.  2S. 

%  Page  11,  12. 


CONCERNING  THEIR  LIVING  IN  TENTS.  25r 

leather  bottles  not  being  mentioned  by  laRoque,  in  those 
places  where  he  professes  to  give  us  an  account  of  the 
furniture  of  an  Arab  tent,  which  yet  thej  certainly  have, 
and  out  of  which  he  hitnself  elsewhere*  tells  us  they 
drink,  when  a  pitcher  is  not  at  hand. 

These  are  very  uncouth  drinking  vessels,  in  comparison 
of  cups  of  silver  or  gold,  such  as  were  anciently  used  in 
the  courts  of  princes,  agreeably  to  what  we  learn  from  1 
Kings  X.  21,  where  we  are  told  the  magnificence  of  Solo- 
mon suffered  no  drinking  vessels,  in  his  palace,  that  were 
not  of  gold,  none  of  silver,  it  being  nothing  accounted  of 
in  his  days;  whereas,  it  should  seem,  in  the  preceding 
reigns,  cups  of  silver,  as  well  as  gold,  were  used  in  the 
royal  houses.  And  to  the  difference  betwixt  these  ves- 
sels of  silver  or  of  gold,  and  these  goat  skin  bottles,  the 
Psalmist  seem^to  refer  when  he  says,  /  am  become  as  a 
bottle  in  the  smoke,  Ps.  cxix.  83.  "  My  appearance  in 
my  present  state  is  as  different  to  what  it  was  when  I 
dwelt  at  court,  as  the  furniture  of  a  palace  differs  from 
that  of  a  poor  Arab's  tent,  among  whom  I  now  dwell. 
Just  thus  the  Prophet  laments,  that  the  precious  sons  of 
Zion,  comparihle  to  fine  gold,  or  vessels  of  fine  gold, 
sunk  in  their  estimation,  and  were  considered  as  no  better 
than  earthen  pitchers,  the  work  of  the  hands  of  the  potter. 
Lam.  iv.  2." 

Our  translators,  by  the  placef  they  have  marked  in  the 
margin  of  some  of  our  Bibles,  as  parallel  to  this,  seem  to 
have  supposed  that  the  Psalmist  refers  to  the  blackness 
his  face  contracted  by  sorrow;  but  this  can  hardly  be 
supposed  to  be  the  whole  of  his  thought :  in  such  a  case, 
would  he  not  raf  her  have  spoken  of  the  blackness  of  a  pot, 
as  it  is  supposed  the  Prophet  Joel  does,  ch.  ii.  C,  rather 
than  that  of  a  leather  bottle  J* 

These  bottles  are  supposed  by  a  sacred  historian,  not 
only  to  be  frequently  rent,   when   grown  old  and  much 

•  Page  20«.  .     t  Job  x\x.  <•<». 

VOL.  I.  33 


2J8  CONCERNING  THEIR  LIVING  IN  TENTS. 

used,  but  also  to  be  capable  of  being  repaired^  Josh,  is* 
4,  wine  bottles  old,  and  renty  and  bound  up. 

Sir  J.  Chardifl  in  a  note  informs  us«  this  is  perfect]/ 
according  to  the  custom  of  the  East  j  and  he  describes 
the  manner  in  which  they  are  mended.  "  They  do  it," 
be  says,  "  sometimes  by  setting  in  a  piece  ;  sometimes  by 
gathering  up  the  wounded  place,  in  manner  of  a  purse ; 
sometimes  they  put  in  a  round  flat  piece  of  wood,  and  by 
that  means  stop  the  hole." 

In  the  sixth  volume  of  his  MS.  he  has  given  us,  at  large, 
an  amusing  account  of  these  bottles^  which  therefore  I 
would  here  set  down.  After  observing,  that  the  bottle 
given  to  Hagar  was  a  leather  one,  he  goes  on  thus  :  "  The 
Arabs,  and  all  those  that  lead  a  wandering  kind  of  life,  keep 
their  water,  milk,  and  other  kind  of  liquors  in  these  bot- 
tles. They  keep  in  them  more  fresh  than  otherwise  they 
would  do.  These  leather  bottles  are  made  of  goat  skins. 
When  the  animal  Is  killed,  they  cut  off  its  feet  and  its 
head,  and  they  draw'it  in  this  manner  out  of  the  skin, 
without  opening  its  belly.  They  afterwards  sew  up  the 
places  where  the  legs  were  cut  off,  and  the  tail,  and  when 
it  is  filled,  they  tie  it  about  the  neck.  These  nations,  and 
the  country  people  of  Persia,  never  go  a  journey  with- 
out a  small  leather  bottle  of  water  hanging  by  their  side 
like  a  scrip.  The  great  leather  bottles  are  made  of  the 
skin  of  an  hegoat,  and  the  small  ones,  that  serve  instead 
of  a  bottle  of  water  on  the  road,  are  made  of  a  kid's  skin. 
Mons.  Dandilly,  for  want  of  observing  this,  in  his  beauti- 
ful translation  of  Josephus,  has  put  goat  skin  in  the  chap- 
ter of  Hagar  and  Ishmael,  instead  of  a  kid's  skin  bot- 
tle, which,  for  the  reasons  assigned  above,  must  have  been 
meant." 

He  reassumes  the  subject  in  another  part  of  the  same 
volume,*  in  which  he  tells  us,  "that they  put  into  these 
goat  skin  and  kid  skin  vessels  every  thing  which  they 
want  to  carry  to  a  distance  in  the  East,  whether  dry  or 

*  On  Gen.  xliii.  11. 


CONCERNING  THEIR  LIVING  IN  TENTS.  259 

liquid,  and  very/arelj  make  use  of  boxes  and  pols,  unless 
it  be  fo  preserve  .such  things  as  are  liable  to  be  broken. 
The  reason  is,  their  making  use  of  beasts  of  carriage  for 
conveying  these  things  who  often  fall  down  under  their 
loading,  or  throw  it  down,  and  also  because  it  is  in  pretty 
tbin  woollen  sacks,  that  they  enclose  what  they  carry. 
There  is  another  advantage,  too,  in  putting  the  necessa- 
ries of  life  in  these  skin  vessels,  they  are  preserved  fresh- 
er; the  ants  and  other  insects  cannot  make  their  way  to 
them ;  nor  the  dust  they  get  in,  of  which  there  are  such 
quantities  in  the  hot  countries  of  Asia,  and  so  fine,  that 
there  is  no  such  thing  as  a  cofier  impenetrable  to  it ;  there? 
fore  it  is  that  butter,  honey,  cheese,  and  other  like  ali- 
ments are  enclosed  in  vessels  made  of  the  skins  of  this 
species  of  animals." 

According  to  this,  the  things  that  were  carried  to  Jo- 
seph for  a  present,  were  probably  enclosed  in  little  ve&» 
sels  made  of  kid  skins,  not  only  the  balm  and  the  honey, 
which  were  somewhat  liquid  ;  but  the  nuts  and  the  al- 
monds too,  that  they  might  be  preserved  fresh,  and  (he 
whole  put  into  slight  woollen  sacks.* 

OBSERVATION  XXXV. 

8MOKINESS     OF     THEIR      TENTS. 

I  HAVE  been  supposing  tbat  the  tent  of  a  common  Arab 
is  a  very  smoky  habitation,  when  I  have  considered  the 
expression  of  a  bottle  in  the  smoke,  as  equivalent  to  that 
of  a  bottle  in  the  tent  of  an  Arab ;  but  in  truth  their  dwell- 
ings must  be  very  much  incommoded  with  smoke,  since 
they  make  fires  in  them. 

So  there  was  a  fire,  we  find,  in  that  Arab  tent  to  which 
Bishop  Pococke  was  conducted,  when  he  was  going  to 
Jerusalem. f     How  smoky  must   such  an  habitation  be, 

•  In  a  MS.  Note  on  this  place  Dr.  Russell  observes,  •  Almonds,  Malnuf s, 
dates,  figs,  he.  are  still  commonly  packed  up  in  skins."    Em  r. 

t  Vol.  ji.  p.  5. 


260  CaXCERNING  THEIR  LIVING  IN  TENTS. 

and  how  blijick  all  ifs  utensils!  Le  Bruyn  in  going  fioni 
Aleppo  lo  Scanderoon,  was  made  sufficiently  sensible  of 
this:  for  being  obliged  to  pass  a  whole  night  in  an  hut  of 
reeds,  in  the  middle  of  which  there  was  a  6re,  to  boil  a 
kettle  of  meat  that  hung  over  it,  and  to  bake  some  bread 
among  the  ashes,  he  found  the  smoke  intolerable,  the  door 
being  the  only  place  by  which  it  could  get  out  of  the  hut. 

To  the  blackness  of  a  goat  skin  bottle  in  a  tent,  but  to 
the  meanness  also  of  such  a  drinking  vessel,  the  Psalmist 
seems  to  refer,  and  it  was  a  most  natural  image  for  him  to 
make  use  of,  driven  from  among  the  vessels  of  silver  and 
gold  in  the  palace  of  Saul,  to  live  as  the  Arabs  do  and 
did,  and  consequently  being  obliged  to  drink  out  of  a 
smoked  leather  bottle. 

If  this  be  a  just  representation  of  the  tentsof  the  Arabs, 
I  doubt  our  translators  will  be  thought  not  to  have  been 
very  happy  in  their  version,  when  they  call  the  tents  of 
the  Arabs  their  palaces,  Ezek.  xxv.  4,  whatever  the  true 
sense  of  the  original  may  be.* 

OBSERVATION  XXXVI. 

OF  THE  BLACK  COLOUR  OF  THEIR  TENTS. 

If  a  survey  of  them  as  to  their  insides  will  not  present- 
ly induce  us  to  call  them  palaces,  so  neither  will  their 
outsides,  I  imagine,  produce  that  effect,  being  such  hair 
cloth  as  our  coal  sacks  are  made  of.f 

*  DJTnn'D  teeroteehem  and  the  singular  51T£3  teerah,  probably  from  1t3 
tar,  signifying  regularity  and  order  ,•  see  I'arkhurst.  From  the  context  it 
appears  to  me,  that  the  word  means  cotes,  pens,  or  enclosures  for  cattle, 
which  may  be  thus  denominated  from  the  regular  manner  of  their  con- 
struction, and  the  order  in  which  they  are  arranged.  I  am  the  more 
inclined  to  this  interpretation,  which,  however,  I  submit  with  perfect  def- 

erence  lo  the  judgment  of  the  reader,  because  the  Arabic  J^  tarra  sig- 
nifies to  drive  together,  as  cattle,  from  different  quarters,  and  ranging- 
them  vp  lo  the  right  and  left.  See  Golius  Meninski,  and  Richardson.  I 
need  not  inform  the  learned  reader,  that  many  deficient  roots  in  Hebrew 
are  preserved  in  Arabic.    Edit. 

t  Shaw,  p.  220. 


CONCERNING  THEIR  LIVING  IN  TENTS.  261 

I  have  therefore  often  wondered  that  Dr.  Shaw  should 
consider  them  as  affording  a  delightful  prospect,  and 
more,  that  he  should  suppose  Solomon  considered  them 
as  comely,  as  well  as  black,  in  Cant.  i.  5,  when  the  turn  of 
the  words  leads  us  rather  to  suppose,  that  he  meant  to 
make  the  bride  say,  she  was  black  as  the  tents  of  Ke- 
dar,  or  of  the  Arabs;  but  comely  however  as  those  of 
Solomon. 

I  shall  have  occasion  hereafter  to  speak  of  the  tents  of 
Solomon ;  at  present  1  would  observe  the  force  of  the 
comparison  when  he  likens  her,  on  the  account  of  her 
blackness,  to  the  tents  of  the  Arabs. 

And  as  I  have  observed  several  faults  here,  besides  omis- 
sions, this  article  must  consist  of  several  particulars.  It 
has  been  said  their  tents  are  made  of  skins  instead  of  hair; 
it  has  been  supposed  that  their  blackness  is  adventitious, 
and  owing  to  the  sun  and  rain  ;  as  well  as  that  they  have 
a  beautiful  appearance;  on  the  other  hand*  it  has  not  been 
observed,  I  think,  as  it  ought,  that  the  tents  of  the  Arabs 
are  commonly  of  another  colour;  particulars  that  are  re- 
quisite to  be  remarked,  in  order  to  enter  into  the  full  force 
of  the  comparison. 

Some  Jewish  writers  referred  to  by  Mercer,*  Bishop 
Patrick,  in  his  Commentary,  &c.  suppose  their  tents  are 
composed  of  skins  ;  nor  does  it  do  any  honour  to  the  ac- 
curacy of  Egmont  and  Heyman's  book  of  Travels,  that  it 
afSrms  also,  that  Arab  tents  are  made  of  goat  skins,  as  it 
does  in  two  places  ;f  whereas  d'Arvieux  tells  us,  they  aie 
made  of  hair  clolh,  which  the  women  weave  ;J  and  Dr. 
Shaw  affirms,  they  are  of  the  same  sort  of  hair  cloth  of 
which  our  coal  sacks  are  made ;  and  so  many  other  au- 
thors have  confirmed  their  account,  that  no  doubt  can  be 
made  of  i\.§ 

•  Vide  Poll  Syn.  in  loc.  f  Vol.  i.  p.  302,  and  p,  373. 

4  Voy.  dans  la  Pal.  p.  173. 

§  It  is  allowed  elsewlierc  by  Bishop  Patrick  himself.  ««  They  are  of  hair 
clolh  generally  in  Syria."    Dr.  Kussell  in  a  AIS.  note.     Edit. 


262  CONCERNING  THEIB  LIVING  IN  TENTS. 

Mercer,  and  others,^  have  supposed  their  blackness  is 
tdventitious,  and  occasioned  by  the  sun  and  the  rain,  upon 
what  grounds  I  do  not  know,  for  their  goats  are  in  com- 
mon naturally  black :  and  therefore  as  the  brown  among 
Laban's  sheep  were  appointed  tube  Jacob's  hire,  because 
they  were  much  less  common ;  so,  for  the  same  reason, 
were  they  spotted  and  speckled  among  the  goats,  they 
being  in  common  black.  The  Spouse  compares  herself 
to  one  of  the  Arab  tents,  on  account  of  the  taint  of  her 
skin ;  but  it  is  introducing  a  thought  she  never  designed, 
when  it  is  supposed  they  both  arose  from  the  same  causej 
the  scorching  of  the  sun. 

Not  only  have  authors  that  never  saw  an  Arab  tent 
supposed  they  were  the  reverse  of  beaatiful,  but  Theve- 
not,f  who  saw  many  of  them,  gives  us  to  understand  he 
thought  them  ugly;  and  they  that  attend  to  that  circum- 
stance of  their  being  made  of  the  same  materials  as  our 
coal  sacks,  will  wonder  at  Dr.  Shaw's  taste, J  who  8eem» 
to  have  thought  them  very  pleasing  to  the  eye.§ 

The  Arabs  make  use  of  black  tents  with  great  univer- 
sality. D'Arvieux,  describing  their  tents,  expressly 
says,  they  are  all  black. ^  All  other  authors,  I  think, 
suppose  this,  that  speak  of  the  colour  of  their  tents  at  all. 

•  Vide  Poll  Syn.  in  loc. 

t  See  Tlievenot,  part  1.  p.  173,    Egmont  and  Heyman,  vol.  ii.  p.  15S. 

+  P.  220. 

$  On  this  observation  Dr.  Russell,  in  a  MS.  note,  makes  the  following* 
remark:  "There  i»  no  inconsistence  here  ;  in  traversing  neglected  plains, 
or  looking  from  the  declivity  of  a  neighbouring  hill,  an  Arab  encampment, 
notwithstanding  the  colour  of  the  tents,  diversifies  the  prospect,  and  is  far 
from  being  an  unpleasing  object.  Black,  indeed,  afibrds  a  kind  of  relief  to 
the  eye  fatigued  with  the  blaze  of  day,  and  the  hot  reflection  from  the 
ground."  Edit. 

fj  Voy.  dans  la  Pal.  p.  173.  Fulcherius  Carnotensis  describes  the  tentg 
oFthe  enemies  of  King  Baldwin  as  white,  and  calls  these  enemies,  Arabs 
and  Saracens  ;  but  it  appears  evidently,  that  he  docs  not  design  by  those 
terms,  Arabs  in  the  sense  in  which  we  have  used  the  term  in  this  article, 
viz.  Bedouin  Arabs,  but  he  means  Egyptians  and  the  Moorish  inhabitants 
of  Ascalon.    Vide  Gesta  Dei  per  Francos,  p.  411,  &c. 


CONCERNING  THEIR  LIVING  IN  TENTS.  263 

Some  other  nations  live  in  tents  of  black  goats'  hair,  in 
other  countries,  as  well  as  the  Arabs  :  so  Thevenot  says, 
the  Curds  of  Mesopotamia  do,  but  it  is  not  common. 
Other  nations  generally  live  in  booths,  or  huts  of  reeds  or 
boughs,  or  other  materials,  for  there  is  a  great  variety  iQ 
the  descriptions  that  travellers  have  given  us  of  these 
habitations.  Or,  if  in  tents,  they  make  use  of  other  col- 
ours in  general :  so  d'Arvieux  gives  us  an  account  of 
another  nation  that  lives  in  the  Holy  Land,  in  tents  as  the 
Arabs  do,  but  their  tents  are  of  rvhite  linen  cloth  ;  they 
are  culled  Turcomans,  obey  the  Grand  Seignior,  are  neat 
in  their  camp,  and  lie  in  good  beds ;  they  are  more  parsi- 
monious than  the  Arabs  as  to  their  eating,  but  are  better 
clothed  than  they  ;  they  do  not  spoil  passengers  as  the 
Arabs  do,  but  are  very  hospitable,  and  give  meat  and 
lodging  to  all  travellers  that  apply  to  them,  without 
charging  them  any  thing.*  As  for  the  Turks,  when  they 
encamp,  as  they  sometimes  do,  the  tents  they  make  use 
of  are  green.jf  So  then  the  tents  of  the  Arabs  are  uni- 
versally blackt  and  scarcely  any  make  use  of  them  but 
tbey ;  the  other  nations,  in  particular,  that  live  in  tents 
in  the  Holy  Land,  as  they  do,  dwell  in  tents  of  white  //n- 
en»  I  am  black,  not  as  a  tent,  for  they  were  often  of 
other  colours,  biit  as  the  tents  of  Kedar,  which  were  uni- 
versally of  this  hue.J 

•  Voy.  dans  la  Pal.  p.  99,  lOO. 

f  Pococke's  Travels  into  the  East,  vol.  ii.  p.  115, 

i  It  appears,  therefore,  that  all  the  tents  of  the  Eastern  nations  ore  not 
black,  nor  are  they  all  made  of  black  goatu'  skin :  among  the  Mame- 
lukes they  are  of  cloth  often,  and  highly  ornamented.  A  particular 
friend  of  Aline,  Lieut.  Browne,  of  the  Rojal  Navy,  bi-ought  a  vrhole 
Mameluke  tent,  poles,  cords  and  all,  home  with  hira  from  the  late 
Egyptian  expedition.  It  is  of  strong  sail  cloth,  of  a  leaden  hue,  but 
ornamented  with  painting.  Mr.  Jackson,  in  his  overland  journey 
from  India,  on  his  entering  the  Tigris,  in  the  place  where  the  river 
Hie  joins  with  it,  near  a  small  town  called  f'oote,  fell  in  with  a  Turkish 
encampment,  pitched  on  the  western  bank  of  the  river,  whi«h  appeared  to 
him  beautiful,  aome  of  the  tents  being  red,  others  green,  and  some  -white-  P. 
75.  See  a  confiriQation  of  this  under  Ubs.  xU  p.  270.  Ep it. 


364  COXCERNING  THEIR  LIVING  IN  TENTS. 

Black  goats'  hair  tents  inaj  very  probably  have  beeo 
generally  used  in  the  most  ancient  times,  since  the  Arabs 
retain  the  most  ancient  customs;*  the  present  distinction 
however  appears  by  this  passage  to  have  been  as  ancient 
as  the  days  of  Solomon.  So  curtains  of  goats*  hair  were 
directed  for  the  Tabernacle,  and  the  Israelitish  women 
appear  to  have  been  very  well  acquainted  with  the  man- 
ner of  spinning  it ;  from  whence  we  may  naturally  con- 
jecture, that  the. tents  of  the  Patriarchs,  and  those  Israel 
might  use  in  Egypt,  as  well  as  in  the  Wilderness,  were 
of  the  same  fabric. 

Moral  interpreters  have  supposed,  that  the  Spouse  rep- 
resents herself  as  black,  and  disagreeable,  as  to  her  out- 
ward aspect,  but  possessed  of  internal  qualifications  loveiii 
ly  as  the  tents  of  Solomon.  What  the  precise  intention 
of  the  sacred  writer  might  be,  I  will  not  take  upon  me  to 
say  ;  but  it  is  certain,  that  the  face  may  be  discoloured 
by  the  sun,  and  yet  possess  an  exquisite  gracefulness : 
so  Mr.  Wood,  the  elegant  editor  of  the  Ruins  of  Palmy- 
ra, observes,4hat  the  Arab  women,  whom  he  saw  at  that 
place,  were  well  shaped,  and  though  very  swarthy,  yet 
had  good  features  ;f  and  of  Zenobia,  the  celebrated 
queen  of  that  city  in  the  days  of  antiquity,  he  says,  she 
was  reckoned  an  extraordinary  beauty,  and  that  the  de- 
scription we  have  of  her  person  answers  that  character: 
lier  complex  ion  of  a  dark  brown,  a  necessary  consequence 
of  her  way  of  life  in  that  climate  ;  her  eyes  black  and  spark- 
ling, and  of  an  uncommon  fire;  her  countenance  divinely 
sprightly  ;  her  person  graceful  and  genteel  beyond  imag- 

*  AVe  are  not,  however,  to  suppose  the  living  in  tents  was  {wior  to  the 
dwelling  in  houses  ;  the  comparing  Gen.  iv.  20,  with  the  irth  veise  of  that 
chapter,  would  lead  us  into  a  contrary  opinion.  Cain,  one  of  the  immediate 
descendants  of  Adam,  built  a  citj ;  but  it  was  not  until  the  days  of  Jabal, 
who  was  of  the  seventh  generation  from  Adam,  that  dwelling  in  tents, 
and  removing  from  place  to  place  with  cattle,  came  into  use  ;  he  -was  the 
father  of  such,  the  first  that  practised  this  flitting  way  af  living,  which 
others  have  since  followed,  particularly  the  Bedouin  Arabs.  This  is  a  re- 
mark of  Sir  J.  Chardiu's,  in  his  Manuscript 

t  Riiias  of  Palmyra,  p.  ?r. 


CONCERNING  THEIR  LIVING  IN  TENTS.  265 

inatioD  ;  her  teeth  white  as  pearl,  and  her  voice  clear  and 
strong.*  It  is  \ery  possible  then  to  be  black  and  at  the 
same  time  comely^  as  to  what  is  visible,  without  having  re- 
course to  moral  qualities ;  and  I  confess  1  could  not  for- 
bear thinking  of  this  passage  of  the  Canticles,  the  moment 
I  read  this  description  of  Zenobia. 

A  passage  of  d'Arvieuxf  will  account  for  that  surprise, 
which  he  supposes  the  daughters  of  Jerusalem  would  not- 
withstanding feel,  upon  seeing  the  swarthiness  of  the  per- 
son which  Sdlomon  had  chosen  for  his  spouse,  as  it  shows 
the  attention  usually  paid  by  the  great  men  of  the  East 
to  the  complexion  of  their  wives,  as  well  as  the  great  tan- 
ning power  of  the  sun  in  Palestine.  "The  princesses, 
and  the  other  Arab  ladies,  whom  they  showed  me  from  a 
private  place  of  the  tent,  appeared  to  me  beautiful  and 
well  shaped  ;  one  may  jndgie  by  these,  and  by  what  they 
told  me  of  them,  that  the  rest  are  no  less  so;  they  are 
very  fair,  because  they  are  always  kept  from  the  sun. 
The  women  in  common  are  extremely  sun  burnt,  besides 
the  brown  and  swarthy  colour  which  they  naturally 
have, "J  &c.  Naturally,  he  says,  though  this  most  per- 
manent swarthiness  must  arise  from  the  same  cause  with 
that  temporary  tanning  he  speaks  of,  or  otherwise  the 
Arab  princesses  would  have  been  swarthy,  though  not 
sun  burnt,  being  natives  of  the  country,  which  yet,  he 
affirms,  they  were  not. 

It  is  on  this  account,  without  doubt,  that  the  Prophet 
Jeremiah,  when  he  would  describe  a  comely  woman,  de- 
scribes her  by  the  character  of  one  that  dwelleth  at 
home.§  The  delicate,  and  those  that  are  solicitous  to 
preserve  their  beauty,  go  very  little  abroad:  it  seems  it 
■was  so  anciently,  and  therefore  the  Prophet  uses  a  term 
lo  express  a  woman  of  beautf,  which  would  not  be  verv 
applicable  to  many  British  Gne  ladies. 

*  P.  8.  t  Voy.  dans  la  Pal.  p.  21i. 

t  Dr.  Kussell  has  made  the  like  remark,  vol.  i.  p.  99. 
i  Jer.  vi.  2,  according  to  the  margin. 

roL.  I.  .34 


201^  CONCERNING  THEIR  LIVING  IN  TENTS.' 

OBSERVATION  XXXVil. 

OF    THE    women's    DIVISIOW    OP    THE    TENT. 

But  ordinary  as  these  dwellings  are,  the  common  Arabs 
so  far  observe  the  modes  of  the  East,  as  to  have  a  sepa- 
rate apartment  in  them  for  their  wives,  made  by  letting 
down  a  curtain  or  a  carpet,  upon  occasion,  from  one  of 
the  pillars  of  their  tents  ;*  though  they  are  not  so  rigid 
as  some  other  of  the  Eastern  people  are  in  these  matters, 
as  appears  by  Dr»  Pococke's  account  of  the  manner  in 
which  he  was  treated,  in  an  Arab  tent,  in  his  journey  to 
Jerusalem.  His  conductor,  who  was  an  Arab,  led  him, 
he  tells  us,  two  or  three  miles  to  his  tent,  which  was  not 
much  out  of  the  road,  and  where  there  was  an  encamp- 
ment of  Arabs;  and  that  there  he  sat  with  his  wife,  and 
others,  round  a  fire  ;  "  For,  says  he,  the  Arabs  are  not  so 
scrupulous  as  the  Turks  about  their  women;  and  though 
they  have  their  harem,  or  women*s  part  of  the  tent,  yet 
such  as  they  are  acquainted  with  come  into  them  :  I  was 
kept  in  the  harem  for  greater  security,  the  wife  being  al- 
ways with  me,  no  stranger  ever  daring  to  come  into  the 
woman's  apar/ment,  unless  they  are  introduced.  Several 
women  came  to  look  at  me,  and  some  men."f 

It  was  not  absurd  then  in  Sisera,  according  to  the  cus- 
tom of  the  present  Arabs,  to  hope  he  n)ight  be  received 
into  Jael's  tent,  the  harem  of  Heber  ;  it  appears  too  that 
her  tent  was  a  much  safer  place  than  any  other,  in  that 
encampment,  as  the  violating  it  would  be  the  greater  in- 
sult to  this  Kenite  Emir.  Nothing  can  be  a  better  coai- 
meut  on  Judges  iv.  17,  18,  20,  than  this  story. 

*  Shaw,  p.  221. 

t  Vol,  ii.  p.  5.  Dr.  Russell  remarks,  "that  this  roust  have  been  an 
Arab  oi  ordinary  rank,"  MS.  note.  And  Mr.  Jackson  says,  ''Women  of 
the  highest  class,  at  Bussora,  are  seldom  seen  out  of  doors  ;  but  when  ihey 
do  go  out,  they  are  always  veiled.  Many  of  the  Arab  women,  particularly 
ef  the  loiver  class,  expose  their  faces."    Journey  from  India,  p.  3'i.  Edit* 


CONCERNING  THEIR  LIVING  IN  TENTS.  2&1 

OBSERVATION  XXXVIH. 

ARAB    WOMEN    TAKE    CARE    OF    THE    ELOCKS. 

Shut  up  as  many  of  the  Eastern  women  are,  those  of 
some  other  tribes  of  them  still  continue  to  feed  sheep  and 
other  cattle. 

The  daughters  of  the  Turcomans  of  Syria  do  this,  ac- 
cording to  d'Arvieux,*  in  which  point  he  supposes  they 
difier  from  the  Arabs  ;  this  is  confirmed  by  Consul  Drum- 
Dioud,  in  general,  only  calling  all,  that  live  in  that  coun- 
try a  wandering  life  under  tents,  Arabs,  he  speaks  of 
Arab  women  as  tending  cattle. f  "  Being  very  thirsty," 
says  this  writer,  speaking  of  a  journey  from  Scanderoon 
to  Aleppo,  "  I  halted  at  a  well,  where  I  saw  a  great  num- 
ber of  callle  attended  by  some  well  shaped,  though  ugly, 
Arabian  girls,  whose  nostrils  were  adorned  with  rings  ; 
they  were  good  natured  enough   to   water  oae  along  with 

their  beasts." 

• 

OBSERVATION  XXXIX. 

REGULAR  INHABITANTS  OF  TOWNS  AND  VILLAGES  IN 
THE  EAST  SPEND  PART  OF  THEIR  SUMMERS  ABROAD 
UNDER    TENTS. 

Besides  those  that  live  wholly  in  tents,  numbers  of 
the  Eastern  people  spend  part  of  the  year  in  them. 

I  have  observed  it  particularly  in  the  accounts  of  Mes- 
opotamia. In  that  country  Bishop  Pococke  tells  us,  he 
fell  in  with  a  summer  village  of  country  people,  whose 
huts  were  made  of  loose  stones  covered  with  reeds  and 
boughs;  their  winter  village  being  on  the  side  of  an  hill 

•  Voy.  dnns  ta  Put.  p.  230. 

f  P  183.    Dr.  Russell  asserts,  thikt   the   Arab  women  (end  cattle  as  ^■''" 
as  the  Turcoman  women.    M8.  note.  F.niT. 


268.  CONCERNING  THEIR  LIVING  IN  TENTS. 

at  some  distance,  consisting  of  very  low  houses  ;  and  th  a 
they  choose  this  place  for  the  convenience  of  being  with 
their  cattle,  and  out  of  the  high  road.*  Five  pages  after, 
he  observes,  that  many  of  the  Curdeens  live  honestly  in 
Mesopotamia  as  well  as  Syria,  removing  in  summer  to 
some  places  at  a  distance  from  their  village,  where  they 
live  under  tents,  generally  in  places  retired  from  the  road, 
to  avoid  the  injuries  of  the  soldiery,  and  of  the  people  of 
the  pasha. 

May  not  this  circumstance  serve  to  explain  a  passage 
of  the  Old  Testament,  relating  to  this  country?  In  Gen. 
xxxi,  it  is  said,  that  Jacob  sent  and  called  Rachel  and 
Leah  to  his  flock,  that  he  there  told  them  of  his  design  of 
returning  from  Mesopotamia  to  his  native  country,  and 
that,  upon  their  consenting  to  go  with  him,  he  set  out  up- 
on this  journey  so  silently,  that  Laban  had  no  notice  of  it, 
until  the  third  day  after  ;  yet  it  appears,  that  he  had  all 
his  effects  with  him,  and  tents  for  the  accommodation  of 
his  family  ;  and  that  Laban,  who  pursued  him,  had  tents 
also  for  his  company.  '  vtturtf 

Here  one  is  surprised  to  find  both  parlies  so  suddenly 
equipped  with  tents  for  their  accommodation  in  travelling, 
and  is  naturally  led  to  enquire,  why  Jacob  sent  for  his 
wives  to  his  flock  ?  Bishop  Patrick's  account  of  the  last 
circumstance,  that  it  was  for  greater  secresy,  and  per- 
haps to  avoid  the  danger  of  being  seized  upon  by  Laban 
and  his  sons,  will  hardly  be  thought  satisfactory.  Could 
rot  a  husband  speak  to  his  wives  with  sufficient  privacy 
in  Laban's  house  ?  Were  matters  come  to  such  an  ex- 
tremity, that  Jacob  durst  not  venture  himself  within  the 
doors  of  his  uncle's  house,  for  fear  of  being  seized  upon, 
and  made  a  prisoner  ?  And  in  fact  Jacob  seems  actually 
to  have  communicated  his  intention  to  Rachel  in  her  fa- 
ther's house :  for  when  he  sent  for  his  wives,  she  brought 
her  father's  teraphim  with  her,  which  she  would  by  no 
means  have  done,  had  she  been  unapprized  of  the  design. 

'  V.  ii.  p.  168. 


CONCERNING  THEIR  LIVING  IN  TENTS.  269 

The  case  seems  to  have  been  thus.  While  Laban  and 
his  daughters  dwelt  in  a  house,  they  that  tended  the 
flocks  had  tents  for  their  accotnmodation.  Laban's  flocks 
were  in  two  parcels,  one  under  tne  care  of  Jacob,  the 
other  commilted  to  the  care  of  Laban's  sons,  three  dajs' 
journey  off;  Jacob's  own  afterward  were  also,  for  the 
same  reason,  probably  at  an  equal  distance.  At  the  time 
of  shearing  sheep,  it  is  reasonable  to  suppose,  that  more 
and  better  tents  were  erected  for  the  reception  and  enter- 
tainment of  their  friends,  it  being  a  time  of  great  feasting, 
1  Sam.  XXV.  4,  8,  36  ;  to  which  they  were  wont  to  invite 
their  friends,  2  Sam.  xiii.  25;  and  the  feasts  being  held 
at  a  distance  from  their  own  houses,  in  the  places  where 
the  sheep  were  fed,  as  appears  from  the  passage  last  cit- 
ed, and  also  from  Gen.  xxxviii.  12.  Laban  went  (hen 
with  his  relations  at  the  time  of  sheep  shearing  to  his 
flocks;  Jacob  at  the  same  time  shore  his  own  sheep,  and 
sent  to  his  wives  to  come  to  the  entertainment,  with  all 
those  utensils  that  they  had  with  them  of  his,  which 
would  be  wanted  having  before  communicated  his  inten- 
tion to  Rachel  his  beloved  wife.  This  was  a  fair  pre- 
tence for  the  having  all  his  household  stuff  brought  to  him, 
■which,  according  to  the  present  Eastern  mode,  we  may 
believe  was  very  portable,  beds  not  excepted  ;  and  hav- 
ing told  Leah  then  his  views,  in  the  company  of  Rachel, 
and  both  consenting  to  go  with  him,  he  had  every  thing 
ready  for  his  journey,  and  could  decamp  immediately, 
taking  his  flocks  and  herds  along  with  him.  Somebody, 
upon  this,  went  to  inform  Laban  of  Jacob's  departure, 
who  being  at  a  considerable  distance,  did  not  receive  the 
news  till  the  third  day. 

This  accounts  at  once,  in  the  most  simple  and  natural 
way,  for  Jacob's  sending  for  his  wives  to  his  flock  ;  for 
his  being  able  to  get  his  goods  together  without  jealousy  ; 
and  for  his  and  his  father  in  law's  being  furnished  with 
tents  for  the  journey. 


270  CONCERNING  THEIR  LIVING  IN  TENTS. 

OBSERVATION  XL. 

THE    SAME    SUBJECT     CONTINUED. 

Nor  do  the  country  people  only  occasionally  make 
use  of  tents,  persons  of  distinction  use  them  also  for  pleas- 
ure. 

I  have  had  occasion,  in  making  remarks  on  the  weath- 
er, to  take  notice  that  the  English  merchants  at  Aleppo 
do,  and  it  seems  to  be  no  more  than  a  conformity  to  the 
customs  of  the  Eastern  people.  For  Dr.  Pococke  speaks* 
of  a  pleasant  place,  not  far  from  Aleppo,  where  he  met 
an  Aga  who  had  a  great  entertainment  (here,  accompanied 
with  music,  under  tents.  Maillet  in  like  manner  mentions 
tents  as  things  of  course,  in  an  account  he  gives  of  an 
Egyptian  oflicerVs  taking  the  air  with  his  lady,  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  Caiio.f  What  is  more,  the  modern 
Eastern  princes  have  frequently  made  use  of  Jhem  in  the 
same  way.  So  Chardin  fells  us, J  that  Tahmasp,  the  Per- 
sian monarch,  used  to  spend  the  winter  at  Casbin,  and  to 
retire  in  the  summer  three  or  four  leagues  info  the  coun- 
try, where  he  lived  in  tents  at  the  foot  of  Mount  Alouvent, 
in  a  place  abounding  with  cool  springs  and  pleasant 
shades  ;  and  that  his  successors  lived  after  the  same  man- 
ner until  the  time  of  Abas  *he  Great,  who  removed  his 
court  to  Ispahan. §    To  which  I  would   add,   that  Olea- 

•  Vol.  ii.  p.  145. 

t  Lett.  11.  p.  120.  t  Travels,  p  382. 

§  This  gentleman  in  his  MS.  supposes  that  we  are  to  consider  Deborah's 
dwelling  under  a  palm  tree,  mentioned  Judges  iv.  5,  in  the  same  light.  If 
(his  is  just,  the  swelling  of  the  river  Kishon,  in  such  a  manner  as  to  destroy 
multitudes  of  the  enemies  of  Israel,  Judges  v.  20,  21,  must  be  considered 
as  a  very  extraordinary  imposition  of  God  :  for  this  violence  of  that  river 
must  have  been  occasioned,  we  have  reason  to  think,  by  very  heavy  rains, 
and  rain  is  not  wont  to  fall  in  that  country  after  May  ;  though  sometimes 
very  copious  showers  have  descended  much  loiter  :  la  Roque  mentions  such 
an  event,    which,  1  have  had  occasion  to  cite  in  the  preceding  Chapter. 


CONCERNING  THEIR  LIVING  IN  TENTS.  271 

rius,  attending  the  ambassador  of  Holsfein-Gottorp,  who 
were  invited  by  a  later  Persian  monarch  to  accompany 
Jiim  on  a  party  of  pleasure,  for  hunting,  hawking;,  &c. 
found  in  an  Armenian  village  many  tents  prepared  for  the 
reception  of  the  company  ;  which,  by  the  variety  of  their 
colours ,  and  the  peculiar  manner  in  whicli  they  were 
pitched,  made  a  most  pleasing  a{)pearance.* 

I  should  not  have  made  this  one  of  my  Observations, 
tiad  I  not  found  that  the  learned  nirade  a  difficulty  of  ad- 
mitting that  the  curtains  of  Solomon,  Cant.  i.  5,  signified 
the  fe?i/s  of  Solomon ;  "for  though,"  says  Ainsworth,f 
*'  curtaigs  in  other  places  signify  tents,  here  they  seem  rath- 
er to  mean  the  goodly  hangings  that  weie  \o  his  house,  and 
about  his  bed.  For  Solomon  dwelt  not  in  tents,  but  build- 
ed  him  houses,  Eccles.  ii.  4  ;  and  one  which  was  thirteen 
years  in  building,  1  Kings  vii.  1.  But  though  he  built 
palaces,  and  as  araost  peaceful  prince, j  seldom  wanted 
tents  for  his  accommodation  in  war,  he  that  left  no  pleas- 
ure untried,  may  be  allowed  to  have  resided  sometimes 
in  them,  pitched  in  summer  heats  in  some  cool  and 
delightful  spot,  like  the  first  princes  of  the  late  royal  race 
of  Persia,  or  erected  in  other  places  for  his  accommoda- 
tion in  hunting,  like  that  more  modern  prince  Olearius 
mentions. 

On  the  other  hand,  though  the  doors  of  the  East  Jiave 
veils  hanging  before  them,  and  probably  had  anciently, 

Ttie  more  nnasual  the  ercnts,  the  greater  was  the  mercy.  I  leave  it  with 
roy  reader  to  determine  how  far  what  is  said  concerning  the  dwelling  un- 
der a  palm  tree,  is  a  proof  that  this  e»ent  happened  out  of  the  usual 
rainy  season.  It  will  be  pi  oper  not  to  omit  what  Sir  John  observes  further 
concerning  this  living  under  palm  trees,  in  his  note  here  ;  he  tells  us,  peo- 
ple retire  under  tltese  trees,  because  they  live  on  their  fruit;  but  he  adds, 
that  the  air  there  is  bad.  I  will  only  take  the  liberty  to  observe,  that  un- 
less there  is  a  ver>-  great  alteration  in  Palestine  with  respect  to  the  palm 
tree,  iteould  not  be  from  any  regard  to  the  fruit,  that  Ucborah  dwelt  under 
one;  for  Dr.  Shaw  assures  us,  the  palm  trees  c  f  the  Holy  Land,  very  rare- 
ly, if  ever,  bring  their  fruit  to  maturity,  p,  343. 

•See  note  on  Obs.  xxxvi.  p  263.  •(■  Upon  Cant  i.  5- 

^  1  Chron.  xxii,  9. 


272  CONCERNING  THEIR  LIVING  IN  TENTS. 

since  a  veil  was  used  in  the  Temple  as  well  as  Taberna- 
cle ;  yet  the  Hebrew  word  there  nij^'T  yirioiht  is  not  the 
same  with  that  which  in  Cant.  i.  5,  is  rendered  curtains.* 
And  as  to  the  goodly  hangings  about  his  6erf,  there  is  no 
reason  in  the  world  to  imagine  they  were  in  use  in  Solo- 
mon's country,  it  is  certain  they  are  not  now  :  "  their  beds 
consist  of  a  mattress  laid  on  the  floor,  and  over  this  a  sheet, 
in  winter  a  carpet,  or  some  such  woollen  covering,  the 
other  sheet  being  sewed  to  the  quilt.  A  divan  cushion 
often  serves  for  a  bolster  and  pillow,  though  some  have  a 
bolster  and  pillow  as  we  have."  Such  is  Russell's  ac- 
count of  ihe  beds  of  Aleppo.^  Hanway's  account  of 
those  of  Persia  is  just  the  same.  Ainsworth  then  ap- 
pears to  have  been  much  more  versed  in  the  Eastern  lan- 
guages than  in  their  customs,  and- is  a  striking  proof,  how 
much  observations  of  the  kind  I  am  making  are  necessary 
to  be  accurate,  though  they  relate  to  things  in  them- 
selves of  no  great  moment. f  Agreeably  to  all  this,  the 
word  translated  curtains  is  no  where  used  in  the  Old  . 
Testament  but  where  a  tent  is  expressly  spoken  of,  ex- 
cepting in  Psalm  civ.  2,  and  there  Isai.  xl.  22,  shows  it  is 
alluded  to.| 

•  Vol.  i.  p.  144.  To  which  he  adds,  in  a  MS.  note  here,  Mosquetto  cur* 
tains  are  sometimes  suspended  over  the  beds.    Edit. 

t  It  ought,  however,  to  be  acknowledged  here,  that,  if  Maillet  may  be 
depended  upon,  curtains  are  sometimes  suspended  over  the  beds,  in  times 
atlesistof  great  sclemnitj:  for  so  he  describes  the  bed  in  which  Ibrahim 
Bey,  the  son  of  the  Bashaw  of  Egypt,  was  to  lodge  after  his  circumcision. 
*'  An  angel  bed,"  he  te'ls  us,  by  which  term  the  French  mean  a  bed  with- 
out posts,  and  whose  curtains  are  suspended  in  the  air,  "  of  crimson  velvet, 
was  in  the  middle  of  one  of  the  apartments.  This  bed  was  covered  on  the 
outside  with  Indian  embroidery,  lined  with  green  satin,  equally  richly 
■wrought.  A  fringe  of  gold,  four  fingers  broad,  ran  round  the  curtains, 
which  were  tucked  up  with  rubies  and  emeralds,"  &c.  Lett,  x  p.  75.  But 
this  was  extraordinary ;  air,  in  common,  is  more  desirable  than  such  mag- 
nificence in  these  hot  countries. 

4  TV^yy  yirioth  is  the  Hebrew  word  both  in  Cant.  i.  5,  and  in  1  Chron. 
xvii.  1;  where  it  is  said,  the  ark  of  the  Lord  dwelt  under  curtains.  In 
Isaiah  xl.  22,  the  word  pT  duk,   is    traaslated  curtain,  which  is  elsewhere 


CONCERNING  THEIR  LIVING  IN  TENTS.  2r3 

I  will  onlj  add,  that  if  Solomon  used  tents  at  all, 
we  may  be  sure  thej  were  extremely  magnificent,  and 
might  with  great  propriety  be  alluded  to  on  account  of 
their  beauty. 

OBSERVATION  XLT. 

TENTS    USED    FOE    RELIGIOUS    SOLEMNITIES. 

Tents  also  appear  to  have  been  used  on  occasion  ofrcr 
ligious  solemnities. 

When  Dr.  Perry  arrived  at  Siut,  a  large  town  near  the 
Nile,  about  seventy  leagues  above  Cairo,  it  was  "  the  first 
c^ay  of  Biram ;  and,  going  to  the  town,  we  found  a  great 
Tncny  tents  pitched,  and  an  innumerable  concourse  of 
people  without  the  town,  to  the  South  west  of  it. 
These  people  were  partly  of  Siut,  and  partly  from  the 
circumjacent  villages,  who  came  thither  to  celebrate  the 
happy  day."* 

The  moment  I  read  this  account,  I  recollected  that  pas- 
sage of  the  book  of  Judges,  They  said,  behold  !  there  is  a 
feast  of  the  Lord  in  Shiloh  yearly,  in  a  place  which  is  on 
the  North  side  of  Bethel,  on  the  East  side  of  the  highway 
that  goeth  up  from  Bethel  to  Shechem,  and  on  the  South 
of  Lebonah  :  Go,  and  lie  in  wait  in  the  vineyards :  and 
see,  and  behold,  if  the  daughters  of  Shiloh  come  out  to 
dance  in  dances,  &c.  Chap.  xxi.  19 — 21. 

It  was  usual  we  see  anciently  for  people  to  celebrate 
their  festivals  out  of  their  cHies  :  most  probably  then  tents 

rendered  dwarf.  Lev.  xxi.  20.  The  word  HDD  succnh,  and  "^DJSjncsac.from 
the  same  root,  ^30  sacac,  are  rendered  curtain,  tabernacle,  covert,  pn- 
vilion,  college,  booth,  tent,  a  hanging,  a  covering,  by  our  translators,  in  ft 
great  variety  of  places.  la  it  poisible,  that  one  simple  term  should  have  all 
these  meanings  ?  Edit. 

•  Page  333. 

VOL.  I.  35 


2T4  CONCERNING  THEIR  LIVING  IN  TENTS. 

also  were  pitched  for  their  conveniences  ;  and  virgins  at- 
tended from  other  towns,  though  those  of  Shiloh  might  be 

rao8t  numerous.* 

-■■rl 

OBSERVATION  XLII. 

STRUCTURE  OF  THE  ARAB  TENTS. 

I 

If  the  black  hair  cloth  used  by  the  Arabs  for  their  tents, 
has  a  mean  and  a  coarse  look,  it  however  very  effectually 
guards  against  rain ;  the  other  coverings,  therefore,  of  the 
sacred  tent  of  Moses,  we  have  reason  to  believe,  were  ap- 
pointed only  for  ornament. 

Abundance  of  questions  may  be  asked,  relating  to  the 
structure  of  the  Tabernacle,  which  it  vt^ou'ld  be  extremely 
difficult  fully  to  answer.  The  delineations  the  learned 
have  sometimes  given  us  in  their  books  differ  oftentimes, 
I  am  afraid,  from  the  pattern  showed  to  Moses  in  the 
Mount :  this  model  Moses  saw  in  a  divine  vision  ;  their 
draughts,  I  doubt,  are  visionary,  in  many  respects,  in  a 
very  opposite  sense. 

What  I  have  met  with  in  travellers  into  the  East 
may,  perhaps,  throw  a  little  light  on  some  things  relat- 
ing to  the  Tabernacle ;  I  will  therefore  set  them  down 
here. 

The  common  Arab  tents  have  only  a  pole  or  two  to 
support  them  in  the  middle,  the  eves  being  stretched  out 
by  cords,  fastened  to  the  ground  by  hooked  wooden  pins  : 
this  is  Dr.  Shaw's  account.f  They  have  then,  it  seems, 
only  one  covering.  But  the  tents  of  other  Eastern  people 
have  sometimes  a  magnificent  lining  under  the  outside 
covering.  So  Egmont  and  Heyman  tell  us,  in  describ- 
ing the  tents  of  the  Grand  Seignior,  pitched  on  a  sol- 

•  See  more  of  dwelling  in  tents,  in  the  time  of  religious  solemnities,  under 
an  Observation  belonging  to  the  eext  Chapter. 

tP-  S21. 


CONCERNING  THEIR  LIVING  IN  TENTS.  2?5 

emn  occasion,  that  they  were  exceedingly  splendid,  and 
one  of  them  lined  with  a  rich  silk  stuff.  This  was  exceed- 
ed by  another,  which,  they  were  informed,  cost  twenty 
five  thousand  piastres,*  which  was  made  in  Persia,  and 
not  finished  in  less  than  three  or  four  years.  The  out- 
side of  this  tent,  they  tell  us,  was  not  remarkable ;  but  it 
was  lined  with  a  single  piece  made  of  camels'  hair,  and 
beautifully  decorated  with  festoons  and  sentences  in  their 
languages.!  The  Curtains  of  the  Tabernacle  made  of 
linen,  blue,  purple,  scarlet,  and  chernbsj  formed,  proba- 
bly, such  an  inward  lining  to  that  sacred  lent. 

Odd  as  a  description  Lady  Montague  gives  of  the  Eas- 
tern buffaloes  is,  it  may  teach  us  how  pleasing  the  red 
ram  skins,  which  laid  over  the  black  goats'  hair  curtains, 
must,  in  that  position,  appear  in  their  eyes.  The  buffa- 
loes, which,  she  tells  us,  they  use  for  the  plough,  are  all 
blacky  with  very  short  hair  on  their  heads,  their  eyes  ex- 
tremely little,  and  white,  so  that  they  look  like  devils. 
The  country  people  dye  their  tails  and  the  hair  of  their 
forehead  red,  by  way  of  ornament.  To  adorn  these  black 
nnimals,  they  dye  some  of  them  red :  must  not  the  red 
woolly  ram  skins  laid  over  a  black  covering  appear,  in  like 
manner,  very  ornamental  in  ancient  Eastern  eyes? 

What  18  meant  by  what  we  translate  badgers*  skins, 
and  in  what  manner  they  were  made  use  of,  are  points 
that  want  to  be  ascertained. 

When  it  is  further  added,  that  the  modern  Arab  royal 
tents  have  no  other  covering  than  the  common  black  hair 
clothjj  it  becomes  extremely  probable,  that  the  Taberna- 
cle of  Moses  was  the  most  magnificent  tent  that  had  ever 
at  that  time  appeared  in  the  world.  Perhaps,  it  has  not 
been  equalled  to  this  very  day, 

*  ^Vhich,  I  think,  u  considerably  more  than  three  thousand  pounds. 

t  Vol.  i.  p.  312. 

i  Phil.  Trans.  Abr.  vol.  iii.  Account  of  a  second  voyage  to  Tadmor, 
October  13.  D'Arvieux,  indeed,  tells  us,  that  the  tents  of  the  einir  he  vis- 
ited, were  distinguished  from  the  rest,  by  being  of  white  cloth.  Voy.  dans 
)a  Pal.  p.  i75. 


f*f$  CONCERNING  THEIR  LIVING  IN  TENT& 


OBSERVATION  XLIII. 

OF  THEIR  HUTS    AND  BOOTHS,    WITH  SOME  CURIOUS  PAR- 
TICULARS CONCEI^NING  THE  TIGRIS. 

Tents  seem  to  be  the  most  eligible  habitations  of  these 
migratory  families;  however  we  find  that  the  Eastern 
people  frequently  content  themselves  with  huts  or  booths, 
when  they  dwell  not  in  houses. 

So  Dr.  Pococke  describes*  the  summer  habitations  of 
some  of  the  people  of  Mesopotamia,  which  I  mentioned 
just  now,  as  made  of  loose  stones  covered  with  reeds  and 
boughs.  He  speaks  alsof  of  some  open  huts,  made  of 
boughs,  raised  about  three  feet  from  the  ground,  which 
Le  found  near  St.  John  d'Acre,  in  which  some  Arabs  lived. 
Other  authors  mention  this  way  of  living  under  booths 
t  also.  They,  it  seems,  are  built  ojf  very  different  materi- 
als, according  to  Dr.  Pococke,  and  in  different  forms  in 
consequence,  according,  I  suppose,  to  what  they  found 
for  their  purpose  in  the  places  in  which  they  were. 

These  materials  are  of  so  perishing  a  nature,  and  trees, 
and  reeds,  and  bushes,  are  so  very  scarce  in  some  places, 
ihdit  one  would  wonder  they  should  not  all  accommodate 
themselves  with  tents;  but  we  find  they  do  not  in  fact. 
Though  therefore,  without  doubt,  many  of  the  Israelites 
in  the  Wilderness  had  convenient  tents,  for  as  their  an- 
cestors had  been  wont  to  live  in  tents,  so  many  of  them 
might  live  in  Egypt  after  the  same  manner,  to  which  we 
must  add  their  spoiling  the  Egyptians,  yet  we  may  be- 
lieve many  of  them  had  no  better  habitations  than  booths, 
since  the  commemorating  their  way  of  living  in  the  Wil- 
derness was  to  be  by  continufng  such  a  number  of  days 
under  booths,  not  under  tents.  It  might  indeed  have  been 
attended  with  some  inconvenience  to  Israel,  to  have  been 

•  Vol.  ii.  p.  158.  t  P-  f9,  80. 


CONCERNING  THEIR  LIVING  IN  TENTSV  277 

required  to  furnish  themselves  universally  with  tents  for 
the  celebration  of  this  feast,  after  they  were  settled  in 
houses,  but  that  would  hardly  have  occasioned  Moses  to 
have  directed  them  to  make  booths,  if  it  would  have  spoil- 
ed the  liveliness  of  ^he  representation.  But  if  there  was  a 
mixture  of  tents  and  booths,  their  living  in  booths  was  suf- 
ficient ;  and  as  they  are  a  meaner,  and  less  convenient  sort 
of  habitation  than  a  tent,  the  living  in  these  was  rather  to 
be  directed,  as  a  more  aflfecting  representation  of  the  state 
of  their  forefathers.  * 

And  barren  as  that  Wilderness  is  in  some  places,  we 
find  it  has  several  spots  of  trees,*  sufficient  for  the  making 
a  slight  sort  of  booths  for  numbers  of  people ;  to  such 
sort  of  places  they  were  without  doubt  conducted  as  much 
as  might  be,  on  account  of  their  cattle,  as  well  as  to  get 
materials  for  these  Tabernacles  ;  and  if  in  any  of  their 
journies  numbers  of  them  were  obliged  to  lie  in  the  open 
air,  they  might  do  it  very  safely,  as  Dr.  Shaw  experi- 
enced, who  tells  us,f  in  his  journies  betwixt  Cairo  and 
Mount  Sinai,  the  heavens  were  their  covering  every  night ; 
the  sand,  with  a  carpet  spread  over  it,  their  bed  \  and  a 
change  of  raiment,  made  up  into  a  bundle,  their  pillow. 
That  in  this  situation  they  were  every  night  wet  to  the 
skin  by  the  copious  dew  that  dropped  upon  them ;  though 
without  the  least  danger  of  catching  cold,  such  is  the  ex- 
cellency of  this  climate.  From  the  heat  of  the  day,  the 
rocks  also  of  this  wild  country  might  afford  them  shelter  ; 
the  convenience  of  them  being  such,  that  we  find  Egmont 
and  Heyman  made  use  of  it,  J  and  in  one  place  that  they 
preferred  it  even  to  the  shade  of  trees,$  when  they  were 
travelling  in  this  very  Wilderness. 

*  Egmont  and  Hejman.  Tol.  li.  p.  151,  and  again,  p.  153.        f  Pref.  p.  11. 

%  "  During  the  heat  of  the  day  we  rested  under  the  shadow  of  a  mooa- 
tain,"  vol.  ii.  p.  154. 

§  "  This  is  a  rery  pleasant  Talley,  and  full  of  trees.  We,  however, 
baited  under  the  shadow  of  a  moi.ntain,  the  side  of  wliich  was  a  little  ex- 
cavated. Here  wc  f*tnnd  tlie  n»m«n  of  •eTcral  travellers  who  had  baJted 
hcr^."  p.  V')?. 


^f^  CONCERNING  THEIR  LIVING  IN  TENTS. 

The  description  that  Job  gives,  of  some  that  were  driv- 
en from  the  more  cultivated  parts  of  the  country  into  the 
Wilderness,  may  be  illustrated,  perhaps,  by  these  cir- 
cumstances. Job  XXX.  5,  6,  7,  They  were  driven  forth 
from  among  men,  to  dwell  in  the  clefts  of  the  valleys,  in 
caves  of  the  earth,  and  in  the  rocks.  *  Among  the  bushes 
they  brayed,  under  the  nettles,  or  thorns,  as  others  trans- 
late the  word,  they  were  gathered  together  ;  that  is,  un* 
der  the  booths  they  made  to  shelter  themselves  from  the 
weather. 

The  booth  of  Jonah  was  not,  as  I  suppose,  of  this  kind ; 
and  as  I  think  I  can  give  further  light  to  that  part  of  this 
story  than  I  have  met  with  in  commentators,  I  shall  here 
set  down  my  remarks,  though  I  am  very  unable  to  answer 
all  the  questions,  relating  to  this  subject,  a  curious  inquir- 
er would  be  disposed  to  ask. 

So  Jonah  went  out  of  the  city,  and  sat  o\i  the  East  side 
of  the  city,  and  there  made  him  a  booth,  and  sat  under  it 
in  the  shadow,  until  he  might  see  what  would  become  of 
the  city.  And  the  Lord  God,  prepared  a  gourd,  and 
made  it  to  come  up  over  Jonah,  that  it  might  be  a  shadow 
over  his  head.  A  worm  the  next  morning  smote  the  gourd 
that  it  withered :  And  it  came  to  pass  when  the  sun  did 
arise,  ihat  God  prepared  a  vehement  East  wind  ;  and  the 
sun  beat  upon  the  head  of  Jonah,  that  he  fainted,  and 
wished  in  himself  to  die,  Jonah  iv,  5 — 8.  Did  Jonah 
make  himself  a  booth  of  boughs  in  which  to  wait  the  event 
of  his  prophecy,  and  did  the  gourd  come  up  in  one  single 
night  afterward  ?  So  our  version  supposes,  and  so  does 
Lowth  in  his  commentary.  But  if  this  had  in  reality  been 
the  case,  one  cannot  easily  conjecture  why  the  coming 
up  of  the  gourd  should  have  given  him  such  an  exquisite 
pleasure,  or  its  destruction  so  much  pain,  when  he  had  his 
booth  to  shelter  him,  which  he  had  before  thought  very 
sufficient. 

By  the  description  Thevenot  gives  of  this  country,  who 
travelled  in  it,  it  appears  that  the  lands  of  the  Mesopota- 
miau  side  of  the  Tigris,  opposite  to  where  Nineveh  stood- 


CONCERNING  THEIR  LIVING  IN  TENTS.  2f9 

are  low,  for  these  lands  are  cultivated  and  watered  by 
means  of  little  ditches  into  which  the  water  is  ponred  ont 
of  the  river;*  consequently  it  might  be,  and  probably 
was,  for  the  sake  of  the  view  he  might  have  of  the  city, 
that  Jonah  placed  himself  on  the  East  side  of  Nineveh, 
rather  than  on  the  West  in  Mesopotamia,  toward  his  own 
country,  and  not  as  Lowth  imagines,  the  better  to  escape 
the  pursuit  of  the  ISinevites  in  case  they  should  follow 
him  to  take  hioi ;  there  is  not  the  least  ground  to  imagine 
Jonah  had  such  jealousy. 

The  side  of  Mesopotamia,  Thevenot  says,f  is  well  sow- 
ed, but  the  Curdistan  shore  barren  and  uncultivated. 
This  made  a  shelter  of  more  importance  to  Jonah,  few  or 
no  trees,  we  may  presume,  growing  in  this  barren  place, 
under  which  Jonah  might  have  placed  himself  on  the 
withering  of  the  gourd.  This  accounts  for  his  uneasi- 
ness ;  but  then  it  will  not  be  easy  to  conjecture  from 
whence  he  could  get  boughs  to  make  himself  a  booth. 
This,  joined  with  the  consideration,  that  the  word  trans- 
lated boolh,  p  SMC,  sometimes  signifies  a  shelter,  in  the 
preparing  of  which  no  art  is  used,  Jer.  xxv.  38,  and  Job 
xxxviii.  40 ;  and  that  the  words,  the  Lord  prepared  a 
gourd,  may  signify  he  had  prepared  one;  and  may  lead 
us  to  think  that  this  gourd,  which  Jonah  happened  to  find 
in  this  desert  place,  was  the  booth  under  which  he  placed 
himself  and  all  that  he  had,  making  it  his  defence  against 
the  heat ;  the  perishing  of  which  in  course  must  give  him 
great'pain;  especially  when  we  consider  the  intolerable 
beat  of  that  country,  which  is  such,  that  Thevenot  in- 
forms us,  he  did  not  go  to  visit  the  reputed  tomb  of  Jo- 
nah, on  the  East  side  of  the  Tigris,  on  account  of  the  ex« 
cessive  heat ;  there  being  no  possibility  of  stirring  abroad 
two  hours  after  the  sun  is  risen,  till  an  hour  after  it  is  set, 
the  walls  being  so  hot,  that,  half  a  foot  from  them,  one 
feels  the  heat,  as  if  it  were  of  a  hot  iron.  J 

About  the  kind  of  plant,  whose  shape  was  so  very  re- 
freshing to  Jonahy  I  do  not  take  upon  me  to  form  any 

•  Part  3.  p.  50,  56.  t  P-  56.  iV.  5S.     ' 


280  COICCERNING  THEIR  LIVIXO  IN  TENTS. 

conjectures.  And  as  to  some  of  the  abovementioned  par- 
ticulars, it  is  but  right  to  acknowledge,  that  Rauwolffgave 
a  verj  different  account  from  Thevenot,  if  he  is  rightly 
translated  :  for  in  that  collection  of  Mr.  Ray  he  is  repre- 
sented as  saying,  that  they  sow  the  greatest  part  of  the 
corn  there  on  the  Eastern  side  of  the  Tigris,  and  that 
the  Mesopotamia  side  is  so  sandy,  and  dry,  that  you 
would  think  you  were  in  the  deserts  of  Arabia.*  Theve- 
not is  however  generally  acknowledged  to  have  been  an 
exact  observer  5  and  his  account,  I  think  I  may  venture 
to  say  from  what  I  have  been  remarking,  throws  light  on 
the  history  of  Jonah,  and  may  on  that  account  be  believ- 
ed to  be  a  just  one  :  however,  it  will  give  me  great  pleas- 
ure to  find  hereafter  this  affair  ascertained,  by  some  curi- 
ous and  accurate  person.f 

•p.  188. 

1 1  have  DO  doubt  of  the  correctness  of  RauwoIfF's  accoant :  Mr.  Jack- 
son, who  ascended  the  Tigris  from  the  Persian  Gulf  to  Bagdad,  gives  near- 
ly the  same  accoant.  **This  part  of  the  country,  except  about  fifty  yards 
by  the  river  side,  Western  bank,  is  a  perfect  desert,  though  it  appears  to 
have  been  once  CHltivated,"  p.  73.  Again  :  **  It  did  not  appear  that  this 
part  had  ever  been  cultivated,  the  Western  bank,  nor  did  I  perceive  any 
signs  of  vegetation,  except  near  the  banks  of  the  river,  which  are  in  gen- 
eral covered  with  a  thick  jungle  of  willows  and  shrubs,"  p.  78  And  again : 
*'  Without  the  walls  ef  Bagdad,  to  the  Westward  is  entirely  desert,  not 
having  the  least  traces  of  vegetation  except  on  the  banks  of  the  river  Ti- 
gris. Behind  the  city  to  the  Northward  the  same  barrenness  prevails  ; 
there  is  no  water,  nor  any  cultivation.  The  city,  however,  is  chiefly  supplied 
with  fruits  and  vegetables  from  the  opposite  side,  the  Eastern,  of  the  riv- 
er, where  there  is  much  cultivation."  Journey  overland  from  India,  p. 
95.  The  afiair  is  thus  ascertained  by  a  gentleman  who  probaSly  never 
knew  that  Mr.  Harmer,  or  any  other,  had  expressed  a  wish  of  the  kind. 
Th?  £siet  therefore  may  b«  coasidered  as  completely  established.    Edit. 


^ 


'f(if 


CHAP.  III. 

CONCERNING  THEIR  CITIES,  HOUSES,  &c. 

OBSERVATION  I. 

GENERAL    ACCOUNTS    OP    THE    BUILDINGS  IN    THE  EAST. 

As  Dr.  Shaw  has  given*  a  very  large  and  instructive 
account  of  the  Eastern  buildings  ;  I  think  it  necessary  to 
give  the  following  extract  from  his  work,  which  contains 
all  that  can  be  deemed  essential  to  the  present  subject. 

**To  most  of  their  houses  there  is  a  smaller  one  annex- 
ed, which  sometimes  rises  one  story  higher  than  the 
house ;  at  other  times,  it  consists  of  one  or  two  rooms  only 
and  a  terrace;  whilst  others  that  are  built,  as  they  fre- 
quently are,  over  the  porch  or  gateway,  have,  if  we  ex- 
cept the  ground  floor,  which  they  have  not,  all  the  con- 
yeniences  that  belong  to  the  house,  properly  so  called. 
There  is  a  door  of  communication  from  them  into  the  gal- 
lery of  the  house,  kept  open  or  shut  at  the  discretion 
of  the  master  of  the  family  ;  besides  another  door  which 
opens  immediately,  from  a  privy  staircase,  down  into  the 
porch  or  street,  without  giving  the  least  disturbance  to 
the  house.  These  back  houses,  as  we  may  call  them,  are 
known  by  the  name  of  olee  or  oleah  ;  for  the  house,  prop- 

•  Tome  i.  Part  3.  Ch.  3.  Sect.  5. 

(Jj*On  the  subject  of  their  baildings,  manner  of  life,  he.  in  the  East, 
Dr.  Shaw  is  rery  particular  and  instructive  ;  and  to  his  descriptions  Mr. 
Harmer  frequently  refers,  supposing  Dr.  Sliaw's  Travels,  to  be  always 
-within  the  reach  of  Ikis  reader.  But  as  this  is  cei*tainly  taking  too  much 
for  granted,  1  have  taken  the  liberty  not  only  in  tliis,  but  in  various  other 
parts  of  the  work,  to  introduce  from  Dr.  Shaw,  as  well  as  from  others, 
whatever  I  judged  necessary  to  make  Mr.  Harmer's  Collectionsintclligilile ; 
referring  only  to  such  authors  as  authorities,  and  not  for  such  articles  as 
should  appear  in  their  respective  places  in  this  work.  Kpi  r. 
TOL.  I.  .3R 


y  >t. 


iSB'2  CONCERNING  THEIR  CITIES,  HOUSES,  «ic. 

crly  so  called,  is  j^  dar,  or  ti^j  beet  ;  and  in  them 
sJrnngers  are  usually  lodged  and  entertained;  in  them  the 
sons  of  the  family  are  permitted  to  keep  their  concubines; 
whither  likewise  the  men  are  wont  to  retire,  from  the 
hurry  and  noise  of  their  families,  to  be  more  at  leisure 
for  meditation  or  diversions  j  besides  the  use  they  are  at 
other  times  put  to,  in  serving  for  wardrobes  and  maga- 
zines. 

The  Tt'^by  a  leeah,  of  the  Holy  Scriptares  being  literally 
the  same  appellation  with  dAc  dleeaky  is  accordingly  so 
rendered  in  the  Arabic  version.  We  may  suppose  it  to 
have  been  a  structure  of  the  like  contrivance.  The  little 
chambery  consequently,  that  was  built  by  the  Shunamite 
fdr  Elisha,  2  Kings  iv.  10,  whither,  as  the  tdxt  instructs 
us,  he  retired  at  his  pleasure,  without  breaking  in  upon 
the  private  affairs  of  the  family,  or  being,  in  his  turn,  in- 
terrupted by  them  in  his  devotions ;  the  summer  cham- 
ber of  Eglon,  Judg.  iii,  20 — 23,  which,  in  the  same  man- 
ner with  these,  seems  to  have  had  privy  stairs  belong- 
ing to  it,  through  which  Ehud  escaped  after  he  had 
revenged  Israel  upon  that  king  of  3Ioab;  the  cham- 
her  over  the  gate,  2  Sam.  xviii.  33,  whither,  for  the 
greater  privacy,  David  withdrew  himself  to  weep  for 
Absalom  ;  the  upper  chamber,  upon  whose  terrace  Ahaz, 
for  the  same  reason,  erected  his  altars,  2  Kings  xxiii.  12; 
the  inner  chamber  likewise,  or  as  it  is  better  expressed  in 
the  original,  a  chamber  within  a  chamber,  where  the  young 
Prophet  anointed  Jehu,  2  Kings  ix.  2,  seem  to  have  been 
all  of  them  structures  of  the  like  nature  and  contrivance  of 
these  olees. 

Besides ;  as  n'bl'  or  r\'b};,  in  the  Hebrew  text,  and  HjXc 
in  the  Arabic  version,  is  expressed  by  wars^wov  in  the 
Lxxii.it  may  be  presumed  that  the  same  word  uars^aov, 
where  it  occurs  in  the  New  Testament,  implies  the  same 
thing.  The  upper  c-hamber,  therefore,  or  vsre^mv,  where 
Tabitha  was  laid  after  her  death,  Acts  ix.  36,  and  where 
Eutychus  &Ieo  fell  down  from  the  third  loft,  Acts  xx.  3, 


CONCERNING  THEIR  CITIES,  HOUSES,  k«.  28ii. 

9,  &c.  were  so  manj  back  houses,  or  olees  ;  as  they  ar# 
indeed  so  called  in  the  Arabic  version.*' 

That  vwe^aov  denotes  such  a  private  apartment  as  one 
of  these  olees,  for  garrets,  from  the  flatness  of  these  roofs, 
are  not  known  in  these  climates,  seems  likewise  probable 
from  the  use  of  the  wprd  among  the  classic  authors.  For 
the  vTffiouov,  where  Mercury  and  Mars  carried  on  their 
amours,  Iliad  ii.  v.  184,  and  B.  ver.  524,  and  where  Pen- 
elope kept  herself  with  the  young  virginsf  at  a  distance 
from  the  solicitations  of  her  wooers,  Odyss.  O  v.  5\b-- 
16,  appear  to  carry  along  with  them  circumstances  of 
greater  privacy  and  retirement,  than  are  consistent  with 
chambers  in  any  other  situation. 

Nay,  further ;  that  rvby,  dUeah  or  vaD-g^axjv  could  not 
barely  signify  a  single  chamber,  canaculiim,  or  dining 
room,  but  one  of  these  contigoous,  or  back  houses,  divid- 
ed into  several  apartments,  seems  to  appear  from  the  cir- 
cumstance of  the  altars  which  Ahaz  erected  upon  the  top 
of  his  n"''7>».  For  besides  the  supposed  privacy  of  his 
idolatry,  which  upon  account  of  the  perpetual  view  and 
observation  of  the  family,  could  not  have  been  carried  on 
undiscovered  in  any  apartment  of  the  house ;  I  say,  if 
this  his  n'V;?  had  been  only  one  single  chamber  of  the  n3 
hoiise,^  the  roof  of  it  would  have  been  ascribed  to  the  n3 
hoiisey  and  not  to  the  n'^;r  dleeah,  which,  upon  this  suppo- 
sition, could  only  make  one  chamber  of  it.  A  circum- 
stance of  the  like  nature  may  probably  be  collected  from 
the  Arabic  version  of  uarggoiav  Acts  ix.  39,  where  it  is  not 

•  n'Sy  comes  fromy^tjy  alah  to  ascend,  go  up,  &c.  ^fjiXc  «'p*"^)  or>  Dr. 
Shaw  pronounces  it  •//«,  comes  from  /JLc  aala  above,  upon;  and  an- 
swers very  properly  to  the  Greek  virtgocuf  from  vtrt^  above,  or  upon,  wsf 
an  upper  cluimber,  or  according  to  others  utn,  an  extremitt/.         Kdit. 

t  Alhen.  Deip.  1.  ii.  c.  10.  Eustath.  in  rer.  18+.  Iliad,  v.  ^.  1054,  and  Ili- 
ad. »•  V.  514.    p.  272. 

^  n3  ^^'*  ^°^^  '•  erroneously  written  in  Dr.  Shaw  all  through  this  piece. 
In  the  signification  of  house  it  occurs  no  where  in  the  Hebrew  liible  with- 
out the  J/ot/n'S,  generally  pronounced  hayith.  It  is  wntteo  presiscly  m 
the  sane  way  in  the  ^rabit,  /l^  beet.  FiDIT. 


284  CONCERNING  THEIR  CITIES,  HOUSES,  &c. 

rendered  nAc iileeah,  as  in  ver.  37,  but  JV£;  girfat ;  in- 
fimaling,  perhaps,  that  particular  chamber  of  the  dleeahf 
where  the  damsel  was  laid.  The  falling  likewise  of  Eu- 
tychus  from  the  third  loft,  as  the  context  seems  to  imply, 
of  the  vsTi^uov,  there  being  no  mention  made  of  a  house, 
may  likewise  be  received  as  a  further  proof  of  what  I 
have  been  endeavouring  to  explain.  For  it  has  been  al- 
ready observed,  that  olees  are  built  in  the  same  manner 
and  with  the  like  conveniences  as  the  house  itself;  con- 
sequently what  position  soever  the  vsn^uov  may  be  sup- 
posed to  have  from  the  seeming  etymology  of  the  name, 
■will  be  applicable  to  the  olee  as  well  as  to  the  house. 

The  word  vzn^uov  will  likewise  admit  of  another  inter- 
pretation in  our  favour;  inasmuch  as  it  denotes  not  so 
much  a  chamber  remarkable  for  the  high  situation  of  if, 
as  Eustathius  and  others  after  him  give  into,  but  such  a 
building,  as  is  erected  tipon  or  beyond  the  walls  or  bor- 
ders of  another;  just  as  these  olees  are  actually  contrived 
with  regard  to  the  n3,  or  house.  Neither  will  this  inter- 
pretation interfere  with  the  high  situation  that  uare^aov  may 
be  supposed  to  have  in  being  frequently  joined  with  the 
words  ccvoiQxiviiv,  or  KoiJot(i»miv.  Because,  the  going  in  or 
out  of  the  nn,  or  house,  whose  ground  floor  lies  upon  the 
same  level  with  the  street,  could  not  be  expressed  by 
words  of  such  import :  whereas  the  olees,  being  usually 
situated  over  the  porch  or  gateway,  a  small  staircase  is 
to  be  previously  mounted  before  we  can  be  said  properly 
to  enter  them ;  and  consequently  avai^aiviiv  and  jcoiJotj^ccmiv 
are  more  applicable  to  structures  in  such  a  situation,  than 
to  the  house  properly  so  called. 

This  method  of  building  may  further  assist  us,  in  ac- 
counting for  the  particular  structure  of  the  temple  or 
house  of  Dagon,  Judges  xvi.  and  the  great  number  of 
people  that  were  buried  in  the  ruins  of  it,  by  pulling 
down  the  two  principal  pillars  that  supported  it.  We 
read  rer.  27,  that  about  three  thousand  persons  were 
upon  the  roof  to  behold  rvhile  Sampson  made  sport. 


CONCERNING  THEIE  CITIES,  HOUSES,  &•.  285 

viz.  to  the  scoffing  and  deriding  Philistines.  Samp- 
son therefore  must  have  been  in  a  court  or  area  be- 
low ;  and  consequently  the  temple  will  be  of  the 
same  kind  with  the  ancient  TtfAivyj,  or  sacred  enclosure, 
which  were  only  surrounded  either  in  part  or  on  all  sides 
with  some  plain  or  cloistered  buildings.  Several  palaces, 
doutwanas,  as  the  courts  of  justice  are  called  in  these 
countries,  are  built  in  this  fashion  ;  where  upon  their  pub- 
lic festivals  and  rejoicings,  a  great  quantity  of  sand  is 
strewed  upon  the  area,  for  the  pellowans  or  wrestlers  to 
fall  upon  j  whilst  the  roofs  of  these  cloisters  are  crowded 
with  spectators,  to  admire  their  strength  and  activity. 
I  have  often  seen  numbers  of  people  diverted  in  this  man- 
ner upon  the  roof  of  the  Dey's  palace  at  Algiers  ;  which, 
like  many  more  of  the  same  quality  and  denomination, 
has  an  advanced  cloister,  over  against  the  gate  of  the 
palace,  Esth.  v.  1,  made  in  the  fashion  of  a  large  pent- 
house, supported  by  one  or  two  contiguous  pillars  in  the 
front,  or  else  in  the  centre.  In  such  open  structures  as 
■  these,  the  bashaws,  kadees,  and  other  great  officers,  dis- 
tribute justice,  and  transact  the  public  affairs  of  their 
provinces. 

Here  likewise  they  have  their  public  entertainments, 
as  the  lords  and  others  of  the  Philistines  had  in  the  house 
of  Dagon.  Upon  a  supposition  therefore,  that  in  the 
house  of  Dagon,  there  was  a  cloistered  building  of  this 
kind,  the  pulling  down  the  front  or  centre  pillars,  which 
supported  it,  would  alone  be  attended  with  the  like  catas- 
trophe that  happened  to  the  Philistines." 

Shaw's  TravcU,  p.  814—317,  4to  edit.  Lond.  1757. 

OBSERVATION  II. 

OF  THEIR  STONE,  AND  MUD  HOUSES. 

The  author  of  the  History  of  Ali  Bey  informs  us,  that 
the  houses  of  the  better  sort  in  Cairo  are  built  of  stone, 
and  generally  two,  and  sometimes  three  stories  high;  but 


28«  CONCERNING  THEIR  Cri'lES,  HOUSES,  4t«. 

those  of  the  lower  class  are  built  of  uiibiirnt  bricks,  and 
only  one  story  high. 

This  gives  us,  at  once,  a  short  and  lively  commentary 
on  those  words  of  the  Prophet  Isaiah,  All  the  peoph  shall 
know,  even  Ephraim  and  the  inhabitants  of  Samariuy 
that  say  in  the  pride  and  stoutness  of  heart.  The  bricks 
are  fallen  down,  but  we  will  build  with  hewn  stones  :  the 
sycamores  are  cut  down,  but  we  will  change  them  into 
cedars,* 

Unburnt  bricks  are  poor  materials  indeed  for  bnildiog» 
when  compared  with  hewn  stone,  nearly  approaching,  it 
is  probable,  to  marble^  which  is  the  diflference  now  be- 
tween the  houses  of  the  poorer  Egyptians  and  the  palaces 
of  that  country ;  and  it  should  seem,  was  the  difference 
anciently  in  Israel  between  houses  of  different  ranks  of 
people  among  them.  And  the  opposing  bricks,  unburnt 
bricks,  to  a  material  so  much  more  beautiful  and  durable 
as  stone,  if  not  marble,  is  placing  the  vaunting  of  Israel  in 
a  Tcry  strong  point  of  light :  The  bricks  are  fallen  down^ 
but  we  will  build  with  hewn  stones. 

The  image  appears  to  vary,  when  the  Prophet  speaks 
of  sycamores  and  cedars,  and  from  tho.  demolition  of 
houses,  he  seems  to  turn  his  thoughts  to  the  destruction 
of  their  woods,  sine*  he  uses  the  term  cut  down,  not  pull- 
ed down,  as  it  should  have  been,  had  he  been  speaking  of 
the  ruin  of  houses,  built  with  different  degrees  of  expen- 
siveness  in  the  wood  work,  where  cedar  was  reckoned  a 
most  magnificent  material  ;f  but  Isaiah  seems  rather  to 
refer  to  the  Eastern  way  of  making  war,  by  cutting  down 
the  trees  of  a  country.  The  sycamores,  which  grew  in 
abundance  in  the  low  lands  of  Judea,J  and  were  not  much 
esteemed,  are  cut  down,  but  we  will  change  them  into 
cedars,  planting  the  precious  cedar  in  the  room  of  despic- 
able sycamores. 

•  Ch.  Jx.  0,  10.  t  See  2  Sam.  vii.  2.  Jer.  xxti.  14,  15. 

i  1  KiBSrs  X.  2".  3  Chron.  i.  18.ch.  ix.  2T. 


CONCERNING  THEIR  CITIES,  HOUSES,  &c.  SSf 

This  same  passage  (caches  us,  that  wlien  great  houses 
are  spoken  of  in  the  Scriptures,  it  appears  that  we  are  to 
understand  the  term  as  expressing  their  much  superior 
height,  as  well  as  the  extent  of  the  ground  that  they  cov- 
ered, two  or  three  stories,  while  common  houses  had  only 
the  ground  floor. 

OBSERVATION  III. 

HOITSES     BUILT     PARTLY    OF     STONE,     AND     PARTLY     OF 
EARTH    AND    STRAW. 

The  manner  of  building  walls,  partly  of  stones,  and 
in  part  of  other  materials,  continues  in  the  East  to  this 
day. 

So  de  la  Boque  assures  us,  from  the  Memoirs  from 
which  he  drew  the  account  which  he  has  published  of 
Arabia  the  Happy,  wilh  which  he  was  furnisJied  by  the 
French  captain  that  went  thither  in  1708,  "that  the  city 
of  Moka  is  surrounded  with  walls  built  after  the  ancient 
manner,  partly  of  stone,  the  rest  of  earth  mixed  with 
straw."* 

This  might  do  very  well  in  a  coHntry  where  it  seldom 
rains,  which,  it  seems,  is  the  case  at  Moka,  it  not  having 
rained  when  he  arrived  there,  for  two  years  before  ;f  yet 
in  Judea,  and  some  ©f  the  neighbouring  countries,  where 
there  are  frequent  rains  in  winter,  and  sometimes  the 
showers  very  heavy,  it  seems  they  had  another  mode  of 
building  their  walls;  instead  of  stones  and  unburnt  bricks, 
or  something  very  much  like  them,  they  were  wont  to 
make  their  walls  partly  of  stone,  and  partly  of  wood.  So 
the  wall  of  the  court  of  the  temple  of  Solomon  was  origi- 
nally built, J:  and  such  was  the  structure  of  it  when  it  waa 
rebuilt,  on  the  return  of  the  Jewish  people  from  their  cap- 
tivity in  I3abyloD,§  by  the  direction  of  the  king  of  Per- 
sia. 

*  Moititt  de  piorrcs,  moilit;  de  terre  battue  &re<B  de  la  paille,  p.  91- 
t  P.  100.  f  I  KiDg$  Til.  12.  $  EzM.  Ti.  i'. 


288  CONCERNING  THEIR  CITIES,  HOUSES,  &c. 

Their  great  cities  were  probably  walled  about  much  in 
the  same  manner  j  I  do  not  know  else  how  to  account  for 
what  is  said  of  the  burning  the  wall  of  Gasa  with  fire, 
which  is  spoken  of  by  the  prophet  Amos,  ch.  i.  6.  The 
walls  of  Tyre  and  Rabbah  appear  to  have  been  of  a  like 
structure,  v.  10,  14.  Such  walls  were  capable  of  being 
set  on  fire.  The  walls  of  the  old  Russian  cities,  it  is  very 
well  known,  were  oftentimes  wholly  formed  of  hnge  beams 
of  timber  laid  one  upon  another,  and  firmly  fastened  to- 
gether. 

OBSERVATION  IV. 

METHOD    OF    COOLING    THEIR    APARTMENTS. 

Dr.  Shaw  tells  us,  their  doors  are  large,  and  their 
chambers  spacious ;  conveniences,  as  he  observes,  very 
well  adapted  to  those  hotter  climates.*  But  when  Eg- 
lon  is  represented  as  receiving  Ehud  and  Death,  in  apar- 
lotir  of  coolingt  as  it  is  called,  in  the  margin  of  Judges 
iji.  20,  or  rather  in  a  chamber  of  coolings  something  more 
seems  to  be  meant  than  merely  its  having  a  large  door,  or 
being  spacious  ;  at  least  there  are  now  other  contrivances 
in  the  East,  to  give  coolness  to  particular  rooms,  which 
are  very  common ;  and  though  the  time  in  which  Eglon 
lived,  is  acknowledged  to  be  of  very  remote  antiquity, 
yet  we  are  to  remember  he  was  a  prince,  and  in  the  pal- 
aces of  snch  these  contrivances  without  doubt  began. 

The  Doctor  is  silent  upon  this  point,  but  Russell  has 
given  us  the  following  account  of  one  of  their  methods  of 
cooling  rooms.  Their  great  houses  at  Aleppo  are  com- 
posed of  apartments  on  each  of  the  sides  of  a  square  court, 
all  of  stone ;  and  consist  of  a  ground  floor,  which  is  gen- 
erally arched,  and  an  upper  story,  which  is  flat  on  the 
top,  and  either  terraced  with  hard  plaster,  or  paved  stone  ; 
above  stairs  is  a  colonade,  if  not  round  the  whole  court, 

•  P.  207. 


CONCERNING  THEIR  CITIES,  HOUSES,  Sea.         289 

al  least  fronting  the  West,  off  from  which  are  their  rooms 
and  kiosks  ;  these  latter  are  a  sort  of  wooden  divans,  thai 
project  a  little  way  from  their  other  buildings,  and  hang 
over  the  street ;  they  are  raised  about  a  foot  and  a  half 
higher  than  the  floor  of  the  room,  to  which  they  are  quite 
open,  and  by  having  windows  in  front  and  on  each  side, 
there  is  a  great  draught  of  air,  which  makes  them  cool  in 
the  summer,  the  advantage  chiefly  intended  by  them.* 

They  have  another  way  of  cooling  their  rooms  in 
Egypt,  It  is  done  by  openings  at  the  top,  which  let  (he 
fresh  air  into  them,  Egmont  and  Heyman,f  as  well  a* 
Maillet,;^  make  mention  of  them,  but  the  last  mentioned 
author  gives  the  most  distinct  account  of  these  contriv- 
ances ;  they  make,  he  tells  us,  their  balls  extremely 
large  and  lofty,  with  a  dome  at  the  lop,  which  toward 
the  North  has  several  open  windows;  these  are  so  con- 
structed as  to  throw  the  North  wind  down  into  these 
rooms,  and  by  this  means,  though  the  country  is  exces- 
sively hot,  they  can  make  the  coolness  of  these  apartments 
such  as,  oftentimes,  not  to  be  borne  without  being  wrap- 
ped in  furs,  Egmont  and  Heyman  speak  of  chambers 
cooled  after  this  manner,  as  well  as  hall8.§      , 

*  By  the  picture  the  Doctor  has  given  u«  of  one  of  thiise  houses,  they 
appear  somewhat  like  our  bow  windows,  only  latticed  iastcai  of  hayinjg 
panes  of  glass. 

f  Yri.  it.  p.  8S.  t  Let  1,  and  Let  2. 

§  "  Another  method,  says  Dr.  Eussell;  MS.  note,  of  cooling  their  cham- 
bers, is  by  means  of  ventilators,  called  bathings"  Dr.  Pococke  gives  us  a 
more  intelligible  account  of  the  method  of  cooling  their  apartments  in  Cai- 
ro. He  observes,  •'  In  towns,  the  lower  part  of  the  houses,  for  about  five 
feet,  is  of  stone,  and  in  some  parts,  the  oorners  are  often  built  of  frames  of 
wood :  and  the  large  windows  commonly  set  out  so  as  to  command  a  view 
of  the  street  They  rarely  live  in  the  lower  rooms,  and  1  suppose  it  is  not 
esteemed  wholesome ;  tbcir  roofs  are  gsnerally  flat,  with  a  cement  over 
them,  and  sometimes  only  earth:  over  the  middle  of  their  great  s.'iloon 
ihey  have  often  a  douae  or  cupola  that  givca  light,  and  sometimes  they  have 
a  contrivance  by  which  the  middle  part  opcai  at  top  to  let  in  the  air,  whejo 
they  think  it  convenient;  and  they  have  usually  the  Urge  cover  set  up  over 
the  openings  in  such  a  manner  as  to  keep  out  the  sun,  and  Ie«vc  a  ftee  p&t- 
lage  for  the  air."    Travelt,  toI.  i  p.  194.  Bo  it. 

VOL.  I.  37 


290  GONCERNING  THEIR  CITIES,  HOUSES,  &o. 

Eglon'a  appears  to  have  been  a  chamber,  and  what 
Shaw  calls  an  olee,  which  gives  a  propriety  to  the  men- 
tion that  is  made  of  Ehud's  passing  through  the  porch,* 
which  no  interpreter  before  the  Doctor  has,  that  I  know 
of,  remarked  :  but  whether  it  was  cooled  by  a  kiosk,  as 
they  are  called  at  Aleppo,  or  by  an  Egyptian  dome,  «r  by 
some  contrivance  distinct  from  both,  is  of  no  consequence 
to  determine.  That  some  contrivance  to  mitigate  the  ex- 
treme heat  of  that  climate  began  early  to  obtain,  in  the 
palaces  of  princes,  is  natural  to  believe;  that  it  begun  as 
early  as  the  time  of  Eglonj  thi«  passage  puts  out  of  all 
doubt. 

It  was  the  more  necessary,  as  Eglon  appears  to  have  kept 
his  court  at  Jericho,f  where  the  heat  is  so  excessive,  that 
it  has  proved  fatal  to  some  even  in  March.  See  after, 
p.  296. 

Their  ceiling  their  rooms  with  wood,  and  neatly  paint- 
ing, and  sometimes  gilding  them.  Dr.  Shaw  takes  notice 
of  as  well  as  Russell;  but  this  account  of  their  kiosks 
gives  a  more  complete-  comment  on  Jer.  sxii.  14,  which 
speaks  of  thorough  aired  chambers,X  and  cutting  out  win- 
dows, as  well  as  ceiling  with  cedar,  and  painting  with  ver- 
milion.§ 

•  "  It  is  necessary ,"  says  Mr.  Harmer,  "  to  consult  the  Doctor's  book 
to  understand  this,  if  we  have  forgotten  his  account.  Through  all  these 
papers,  I  have  supposed  my  readers  acquainted  with  his  travels."  Dr. 
Shaw's  whole  account  I  have  inserted  in  Observatioa  the  first.         Edit. 

t  Judges  iii.  13 — 28. 

i  See  the  margia.  Arias  Montanus  translates  the  words  DTlllO  fiVTi' 
aleeoth  inemvacheem,  Cxnacula  vento  exposita. 

§  Egmont  and  Heyraan  give  an  account  of  a  square  tower  in  the  centre 
of  a  roof  of  a  grand  saloon  at  Damascus,  for  admitting  the  fresh  air,  v.  ii.  p. 
254.  If  kiosks,  then,  alone  are  used  at  Aleppo,  domes  and  towers  for  cool- 
ing rooms  are  used  in  other  places  for  this  pnrpoie,  nor  are  they  peculiar 
to  Egypt.  The  MS.  C.  tells  us,  the  eastern  windows  are  very  large,  and 
even  with  the  floor.  It  is  no  wonder  Eutychus  might  fall  outj  if  the  lattice 
was  not  well  fastened,  or  if  it  was  decayed,  when,  suok  into  a  deep  sleep, 
he  leaned  with  all  his  weight  against  it>  Acts  xx.  9. 


CONCERNING  THEIR  CITIES,  HOUSKS,  kc.  i'.ll 


OBSERVATION  V. 

OF    THE    NARROWNESS    OF  THE    DOORS    OF    THE    ENCLO- 
SURES   ROUND    THEIR    HOUSES. 

1.1.      !- 

.  What  makes  the  comparison  used  bj  our  Lord  so 
painful  (o  the  mind,  when  he  said,  It  is  easier  for  a  camel 
to  go  through  the  eye  of  a  needle^  than  for  a  rich  man  to 
enter  into  the  kingdom  of  God,*  seema  to  be  its  appear- 
ing quite  unnaturalo  as  we  are  wont  to  have  no  concep- 
tion of  its  being  at  all  in  use  to  make  a  camel  pass  through 
any  narrow  passage.  Very  widelj  extended  deserts  is 
the  idea  we  associate  with  that  of  a  camel;  such  an  ani- 
mal's being  put  to  force  its  way  through  a  narrow  pas- 
sage we  have  no  notion  of:  it  therefore  appears  unnatu- 
ral, and  gives  us  uneasiness.  But  this  is  wholly  owing  to 
our  being  unacquainted  with  local  circumstances. 

I  have  elsewhere  given  an  account  of  its  being  common 
for  the  Arabs  to  ride  into  houses,  and  commit  acts  of  great 
violence,  if  measures  are  not  taken  to  prevent  them. 
The  Eastern  doors  therefore  are  often  made  very  low,  in 
OBder  to  guard  against  them,f  not  above  three  feet  in 
height.J 

This  keeps  out  tJie  Arabs,  who  are  almost  centaurs, 
and  seldom  tempted  to  dismount  in  their  excursions,  but, 
we  should  suppose,  must  be  very  inconvenient  for  the  in- 
habitants, who  make  so  much  use  of  camels,  and  must  of- 
ten want  to  introduce  them  into  their  court  yards;  but, 
though  they  are  so  much  taller  than  the  Arab  horses,  this 
ts  done,  however,  by  training  up  their  camel?,  not  only  to 

*  Matt,  xix,  24,  aad  in  two  of  the  other  F.vangeKsts. 

t  See  p.  207,  Observ.  xi. 

i  This  must  mean  the  doors  of  the  enclosure  round  the  house ;  for  the 
doors  of  the  houses  are  generally  made  veiy  largfi,  for  the  purpose  of  ad- 
milting  plenty  of  fresh  air  into  their  apartments.  See  the  preceding  Ob- 
servation KnTT 


2S2  CONCEnNING  THEIR  CITIES,  HOUSES,  Stc. 

kneel  down  when  tliey  are  loaded  and  unloaded,  but  to 
make  their  way  oft  their  knees  through  such  small  door 
ways. 

This  must  sometimes,  without  doubt,  be  attended  with 
great  difficulty,  and  makes  the  comparison  of  our  Lord 
sufBciently  natural :  It  would  be  as  easy  to  force  a  camel 
through  a  door  way  as  small  as  the  eye  of  a  needle,  as  for 
a  rich  man  to  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  God.*= 

Strong  painting  this!  according  to  the  Eastern  custom 
it  is  allowed  ;  but  nothing  unnatural,  since  camels  are  of- 
ten forced  through  a  small  aperture,  though  certainly 
much  larger  than  the  eye  of  the  largest  needle  that  ever 
was  made;  the  Arabs  of  the  times  of  our  Lord,  and  in- 
deed long  before,!  being  of  the  same  plundering  disposi- 
tion with  those  of  the  present  generation,  and  consequent- 
ly must  have  been  guarded  against  in  much  the  same 
manner. 

1  have  not  only  met  with  an  account  in  some  book  of 
travels,  of  camels  making  their  way  on  their  knees  through 
the  low  Eastern  door  ways  ;  but  I  have  found  in  the  pa- 
pers of  a  very  ingenious  clergyman,  containing  observa- 
tions of  a  similar  kind  to  these,  that  he  had  been  assured 
by  a  gentleman  that  lived  many  years  in  Morocco,  that 
the  entrances  into  the  houses  there  are  low,  for  a  similar 
reason,  and  that  loaded  camels  pass  them  on  their  knees. 

*  This  is  a  proverbial  mode  of  speecli  among  the  Asiatics,  merely  to  ex- 
press the  impossibility  of  a  thing.  So  Koran  Surat  Alaaraf,  7.  t.  41. 
"  The  gates  of  heaven  shall  not  be  opened  unto  them,  nor  shall  they  entet* 

into  Paradise  until  a  camel  pats  through  the  eye  of  a  needle. 

So  in  the  Rabbins.  They  do  not  show  a  man  a  palm  tree  of  gold,  nor  an 
Elephant  going  through  the  eye  of  a  needle.  Rab.  Beracoth.  Rabbi 
Shesheth  answered  Rab.  Amram.  "  Perhaps  thou  art  one  of  those  of  Pom- 
beditha  luho  can  make  an  Elephant  pass  through  the  eye  of  a  needle'^" 
That  is,  says  the  Lexicon,  called  Aruch,  -who  speak  things  that  arc  impossf^ 
Hit    Bava  Metsia.  See  Lightfoot,  vol.  ii.  p.  219. 

t  Jer.  iij.  2. 


CONCERN1N&  THEIR  CITIES,  HOUSES,  ka.         293 

OBSERVATION  VI. 

>>IMENSE  STONES  FOUND  IN  ANCIENT  RUINS  IN  THE  EAST. 
0 

'  Many  people  have  been  much  surprised  at  the  large- 
ness of  the  stones  that  are  found  in  the  ruins  of  some  an- 
cient buildings,  especially  of  some  that  were  raised  on  the 
tops  of  high  hills. 

The  remains  of  some  slruclures  on  the  top  of  Mount 
Tabor  have,  in  particular,  been  much  wondered  at  on 
this  account.  "This  mountain,*'  according  to  le  Bruyn, 
"  is  very  high  and  very  steep,  nearly  of  the  form  of  a  su- 
garloaf.  And  as  it  was  not  to  be  ascended  on  horseback, 
we  alighted  at  the  foot  of  the  mountain.  We  were  half 
an  hour  in  climbing  it,  and  arrived  at  the  top  very  much 
fatigued."*  In  the  next  page,  he  says,  •*  I  found  here 
the  remains  of  many  buildings,  the  stones  of  which  were 
extraordinarily  large  and  heavy,  could  not  have  been 
brought  thither  but  with  incredible  labour ;  for  it  cannot 
be  said  that  they  were  taken  from  the  mountain  itself, 
which  is  not  of  a  rocky  nature,  nor  stony  ;  on  the  contra- 
ry it  is,  from  the  bottom  to  the  top,  quite  covered  with 
trees  and  underwood." 

It  seems  lo  have  been  from  the  consideration  of  the  ex- 
treme labour  and  difficulty  attending  the  erection  of  such 
massive  buildings,  in  such  elevated  situations,  that  the 
Prophet  Zechariah  says,  fFho  art  thou,  O  great  moun- 
tain f  Before  Zeruhbabel  thou  shall  become  a  plain,  and 
he  shall  bring  forth  the  head  stone  thereof  with  shouting, 
Grace,  Grace  imto  it  I  ch.  iv.  7.  Nothing  could  excite 
a  more  lively  apprehension  of  the  difficulty  of  re-edifying 
the  temple  at  Jerusalem,  than  an  image  of  this  kind,  and 
at  the  same  time  of  the  comparalive  ease  with  which  it 
was  to  be  accomplished.  It  appeared  beforehand  like  the 
erecting  of  a  structure  composed  of  enormous  stones  on 
the  top  of  aniiigh  hill,  but  would  in  fact  be  found  as  easy 
•8  erecting  a  great  building  on  a  plain. 

•  Tome  ii.  p.  328. 


29t  CONCERNINU  THEln  CITJliS,  HOUSES,  &V 


OBSERVATION  VII. 

SERPENTS      AND      SCORPIONS     FREQUENTLY      LODGE      l^f 
THEIR    HOUSES. 

That  Berpents  sometimes  concealed  themselves  in  the 
holes  and  chiuks  of  the  walls  of  the  Eastern  houses,*  iS 
supposed  by  the  Prophet  Amos,  when  he  says,  As  if  a 
tnan  did  flee  from  a  lion,  and  a  bear  did  meet  him  ;  or 
went  into  ike  house,  and  leaned  his  hand  on  the  wall,  and 
a  serpent  hit  him.f 

This  is  confirmed  by  a  remarkable  story,  in  the  col- 
lections made  by  M.  d'Herbelot,  from  the  Eastern  writ- 
ers, which  is  in  substance  as  follows:  Amadeddulat,  who 
reigned  in  Persia  in  the  tenth  century,  and  was  a  most 
generous  prince,  found  himseFf  reduced  to  great  difficul- 
ties, arising  from  his  want  of  attention  to  his  treasury,  his 
troops  beginning  to  disband  themselves  from  want  of  pay, 
■when  Fortune,  which  had  raised  him  from  a  very  low 
state,  foF  he  was  nothing  more  than  the  son  of  a  fisherman, 
vpho  exercised  his  occupation  on  the  Caspian  Sea,  undef- 
took  to  maintain  him  in  it.  For,  walking  one  day  in  one 
of  the  rooms  of  his  palace,  which  had  been  before  that 
time  the  residence  of  Jacout,  who  had  been  his  antago- 
nistj  he  perceived  a  serpent,  which  put  its  head  out  of  a 
chink  of  the  wall.  Upon  which  he  immediately  ordered 
that  the  place  should  be  searched,  and  the  serpent  killed. 
In  opening  the  wall  there,  they  found  a  secret  place,  in 
which  they  could  not  discover  the  gerpent,  but  a  treasure, 
which  was  lodged  in  several  coffers,  in  which  Jacout  had 
deposited  his  most  precious  effects,  consisting  of  gold, 
jewels,  and  clothes. J 

In  like  manner,  I  remember  to  have  met  with  an  acv 
count,  in  some  of  our  travellers  into  the  Levant,  though  I 

*  This  is  not  unfrequent  io  JVestern  houses  also,  as  1  have  myself  seen. 
Edit. 

t  Ch.  V.  19.  t  Art.  Aroadeddurat-i 


CONCERNING  THEIR  CITIES,  HOUSES,  &c.  295 

cannot  exactly  poJnt  out  the  place,  in  which  the  writer 
gives  an  account  of  their  being  alarmed  by  a  person's  be- 
ing stung  by  a  scorpion,  which  was  concealed  in  a  hole  of 
the  wall  of  a  house  \»  which  they  then  were,  and  on  which 
that  person  had  inadvertently  laid  his  hand. 

As  venomous  animals  creep,  not  unfrequently,  into 
holes  in  the  walls  of  houses,  so  we  shall  have  occasion,  in 
a  succeeding  Observation,  to  take  notice  of  the  looser 
structure  of  many  of  the  walk  about  their  grounds,  whef  e 
it  is  reasonable  to  believe  these  venomous  creatures  still 
eftener  hide  themselves. 

OBSERVATION  VIIL 

THEIR    MANNER    OF  SLEEPING    IN    THE    EAST,    WUTH    AN 
ILLUSTRATION    OF    ECCL.  IV.    II. 

The  heat  of  the  climate  being  such,  it  might  appear 
somewhat  surprising,  that  Solomon  should  speak  of  two 
Iffing  together  in  one  bed,  in  order  to  get  heaty  Eccl.  iv. 
11,  did  we  not  recollect,  that  this  might  be  done  some- 
times for  medicrnal  purposes ;  and  hardly  ever  practised 
else. 

It  could  not  be  in  general  a  necessary  management ;  it 
sometimes  could  hardly  be  borne  in  common  life,  in  these 
very  sultry  regions. 

Agreeably  to  this,  Maillet  remarks,  that  in  Egypt  they 
sleep  each  in  a  separate  bed :  that  not  only  do  the  hu6# 
band  and  the  wife  lie  in  two  distinct  beds  in  the  same 
apartment,  but  that  their  female  slaves,  though  several 
lodge  in  the  same  chambeo*,  yet  have  each  a  separate  mat- 
tress.* 

But  it  might,  in  the  age  of  Solomon,  be  thought  to  bo 
a  very  efficacious  management,  to  recal  the  vital  heat 
where  it  was  almost  extinguished,  which  was  enough  to 
justify  the  propriety  of  this  sentiment  of  Solomon,  in  ilpr 

"  L«t.  11,  p.  124. 


296  CONCERNING  THEIR  CITli^S  HOUSES,  &c. 

ears  of  the  inhabitaats  of  this  aiiltrj  part  of  the   world. 
It  is  certain  it   was  used  in  the  case  of  his  father  David/^ 
iKingsi.  1,  2.  dt 

In  common,  we  may  believe,  they  lodged  as  the  people*** 
of  Egypt  now  do.     Lnke  xi.  T,  is  no  argument  to  the  con- 
trary :  He  from   within  shall  answer  and  say,  trouble 
me  not;  the  door  is  now  shut,  and  niy  children  are  with 
me  in  bed  ;  I  cannot  rise  and  give  thee,  for  all  this  mayo 
signify  nothing  more,  than  we  are  all  abed,  do  not  disturl> ' 
us ;  not  we  are  all  in  one  bed.* 

This  is,  I  hope,  an  easy  view  of  the  words  of  Solomon, 
which  might  otherwise  be  thought  to  be  more  proper  in 
the  mouth  of  a  Siberian  or  Laplander,  than  in  that  of  an 
inhabitant  of  Palestine.  It  has  been  observed  in  some  of 
the  preceding  pages,  that  the  cold  of  the  night  is  very 
considerable  even  in  these  hot  countries ;  they  do  not, 
however,  now  guard  against  it  by  lying  two  in  a  bed, 
probably,  therefore,  they  did  not  anciently,  as  their  cus- 
toms seldom  change. 

OBSERVATION  IX. 

OF   THEIR   SLEEPING    ROOMS,    TIME     OF    REPOSIITG,    &C. 

The  people  of  Aleppo,  however,  are  so  cautious  to 
avoid  a  cool  air  when  they  sleep,  that  they  choose  for 
their  bed  chambers  the  smallest  and  lowest  roofed  rooms 
on  the  ground  floor,  according  to  Dr.  Russell,  burning  al- 
so in  them  not  only  a  lamp  all  the  time,  but  often  one  or 
two  pans  of  charcoal  $  which  sometimes  proves  of  bad  con- 
sequence to  them,  and  would  certainly  suffocate  such  as 
have  not  been  accustomed  to  this  bad  practice.  But  all 
this  is  to  be  understood  of  the  winter  time ;  for  in  the 
summer,  on  the  contrary,  they  are  fond  not  only  of  sitting 

*  Sir  John  Chardin's  MS.  tells  us,  it  is  usual  for  a  whole  family  to  sleep 
ia  the  same  room,  especially  those  in  lOTrer  life,  through  (he  East ;  they 
laying  their  beds  on  the  ground.  This  circumstance,  added  to  what  is 
said  stove,  s^ts  this  afiaii'  ia  tire  clearest  and  strongest  lights 


CONCERNING  THEIR  CITIES,  HOUSES,  &c.  297 

in  a  cool  air,  but  of  sleeping  in  it  also,  and  make  use  of 
different  naethods  to  obtain  this  refreshment,  lying  on  the 
housetops,  or  having  their  beds  made  in  iheir  court  yards, 
for  the  sake  of  coolness. 

In  like  manner  Dr.  Pococke  gives  us  to  understand, 
that  they  often  He  in  Egypt  in  those  cool  saloons,  that 
hare  cupolas  to  let  in  the  air ;  for  he  says,  that  they  have 
often  a  sofa  at  each  end,  and  that  as  they  live,  so  they  of- 
ten lie  in  these  saloons,  having  their  beds  brought  on  the 
sofas.* 

It  is  no  wonder  then  that  the  servants  of  Eglon  imagin- 
ed that  he  might  be  disposed  to  sleep,  in  his  chamber  of 
cooling,  or,  in  the  Scripture  phrase,  to  cover  his  feet, 
when,  after  observing  that  Ehud  was  departed,  they  found 
the  door  of  the  olee  locked,  as  if  he  had  a  mind  still  to 
continue  alone  and  undisturbed.  It  might  be  a  time  too 
when  he  was  known   frequently   to  indulge  himself  in 

sleep.f 

•  Vol.  i.  p.  194. 

f  The  heat  of  these  countries  at  noon  is  so  great,  in  the  suranier  lime, 
that  the  Eastern  people  frequently  lie  down  to  sleep  in  the  niiddlt-  of  the 
day,  especially  people  of  delicacy ;  it  was  so  anciently,  for  we  find  Ishbo- 
sbeth  was  laid  on  a  bed  at  noon,  when  he  was  assassinated,  2  Sara.  iv.  5 — 
7.  The  heat,  however,  at  that  time  is  not  so  gi'cat,  especially  in  the  first 
part  of  the  summer,  but  that  more  hardy  people  can  journey  then ;  the 
sons  of  Kimmon,  we  find,  were  in  motion,  while  lahboEheth  slept-  So  we 
find  the  curious  editor  of  the  Ruins  of  Palmyra,  pursued  his  journey  all  day 
lOBg,  in  the  middle  of  March,  over  a  very  sandy,  sultry  desert,  p.  33. 
Noon  coming  on,  and  the  weather  beginning  to  grow  very  warm,  ihv 
servants  of  Eglon  prsbably  thought  their  master  might  be  Indliied  to  sleep 
at  noon,  as,  doubtless,  he  was  commonly  wont  to  do  when  the  summer  was 
more  advanced  ;  and  yet  the  weather  not  be  so  hot  as  to  dissuade  Ehud 
from  journeying,  and  especially  in  such  a  critical  situation.  The  papers 
published  by  Niebuhr  give  much  the  same  account.  In  Arabia,  it  is  soliot 
in  July,  and  In  August,  that,  except  in  a  case  of  pressing  necessity,  no- 
body goes  out  from  eleven  in  the  rooming  till  three  in  the  afternoon;  the 
Arabs  seldom  work  during  this  time,  they  employ  it  cumunonly  in  sleep- 
ing in  a  vault,  into  which  the  air  is  let  from  above,  kc.  p.G.  So  Sir  J. 
Chardin,  in  his  sixth  MS.  volume,  speaking  of  the  women's  going  out  at 
evening  to  fetch  v«ter,  Gen.  xxiv.  U,  says,  "This  is  always  done  then,  or 
in  the  morning,  none  stirring  out  of  the  house  when  the  sun  is  any  height 
above  the  horizon,  without  great  necessity." 

Dr.  Russell,  in  a  MS.  note  here,  says,  "They  rise  very  early,  dine  at  an 
early  hour,  and  repose  from  one  or  two  until  four  in  the  afternoon."  Em  i 

VOL.  I.  38 


fll  CONCERNING  THEIR  CITIES.  HOUSES.  8cc. 

Ehud*  it  may  be  imagined,  caoie  with  his  attendants 
and  presents  to  the  quarries  of  Gilgal,  io  the  neighbour- 
hood of  Jericho,  and  from  thence  in  torm  to  a  public  au* 
dience  in  some  open  place  ;  that  having  acquired  the 
good  graces  and  the  confidence  of  Eglon,  by  the  agreea- 
bleness  of  his  present,  he  obtained  the  favour  of  a  private 
audience  at  a  set  hour  ;  that  sending  away  all  his  atten- 
dants from  the  place  where  they  put  themselves  in  order 
to  appear  before  the  king,  excepting  those  that  his  quality 
made  it  decent  for  him  to  retain,  he  came  back  from  thence 
with  these  few  attendants,  and  being  admitted  for  privacy 
into  this  apartment,  as  he  pretended  to  have  some  affair 
of  secrecy  to  impart,  he  there  killed  Eglon;  and  coming 
back  to  his  attendants,  mounted  with  them,  and  followed 
those  that  could  not  retire  with  the  swiftness  he  could, 
and  who  therefore  were  previously  sent  away.^ 

OBSERVATION  X. 

OF    THEIR    SLEEPING    ON    THE  TOPS    OF    THEIR    HOUSES. 

They  sleep,  in  the  summer,  on  the  tops  of  the  bouses 
at  Aleppo,  and  they  do  the  same  in  Judea.  if'-ri9 

So  Egmont  and  Heyman  tell  us,  that  at  Caipha,f  at  thft 
foot  of  Mount  Carmel,  "  the  houses  are  small  and  flatroofed, 
where,  during  the  summer,  the  inhabitants  sleep  in  arbours 
made  of  the  boughs  of  trees."  They  mention  also  tents 
of  rushes  on  the  flat  roofs  of  the  houses  at  Tiberias,  J  which 
are  doubtless  for  the  same  purpose,  though  they  do  not 
say  so.  Dr.  Pococke  in  like  manner  tells  us,§  "  that  when 
he  was  at  Tiberias  in  Galilee,  he  was  entertained  by  the 
sheik's  steward,  the  sheik  himself  having  much  company 
with  him,  but  sending  him  provisions  from  his  own  kitch- 
en, and  that  they  supped  on  the  top  of  the  house  for  cool- 
ness, according  to  their  custom,  and  lodged  there  likewise^ 

•  S'ee  before,  p.  288.  t  Vol.ii.  p.  4. 

t  P.  32.  §  Vol.  ii.  p.  6y. 


CONCERNING  THEIR  CITIES,  HOUSES,  &c  299 

iu  a  sort  of  closet,  about  eight  feet  square,  of  a  wicker 
work,  plastered  round  toward  the  bottom,  but  without 
any  door,  each  person  having  his  cell."  In  Galilee  then 
we  find  they  lodged  a  stranger,  whom  they  treated  with 
respect,  on  the  top  of  the  house,  and  even  caused  him  to 
sup  theie.     This  was  the  latter  end  of  May. 

Tl]is  writer  is  more  distinct  than  the  others  on  this 
point,  and  I  have  recited  his  account  at  large,  because  it 
may  perhaps  lead  to  the  true  explanation  of  1  Sam.  ix. 
25,  26,  which  verses  tell  us,  that  after  they  descended 
from  the  high  place,  Samuel  conversed  with  Saul,  jan  hjf 
al  haggag,  on  the  housetop;  and  that  at  the  spring  of 
the  day  Samuel  called  Saul  to  the  housetop;  or,  as  it 
may  be  equally  well  translated,  on  the  housetop  ;*  That 
is,  Samuel  conversed  with  him  for  coolness  on  the  house* 
top  in  the  evening,  and  in  the  morning  called  Saul  who 
bad  lodged  there  all  night,  and  was  not  got  up,  saying, 
Up,  that  I  may  send  thee  away.  The  Sept  uagint  seem 
to  have  understood  it  very  much  in  this  light,  for  they 
thus  translate  the  passage,  And  they  spread  a  bed  for 
Saul  on  the  housetop,  and  he  slept;  which  shows  how 
suitable  this  explanation  is  to  those  that  are  acquainted 
with  Eastern  customs.  As  it  is  represented  in  our  trans- 
lation, Samuel  called  Saul  to  the  housetop  in  the  morn- 
ing, but  no  account  can  be  easily  given  for  this ;  it  does 
not  appear  to  have  been  for  secrecy,  for  he  did  not  anoint 
then,  but  after  he  had  left  Samuel's  house,  for  which 
transaction  the  Prophet  expressly  required  secrecy.  As 
they  were  going  down  to  the  end  of  the  city,  Samuel  said 
to  Saulf  bid  the  servant  pass  on  before  us,  and  he  passed 
on,  but  stand  thou  still  awhile,  that  I  may  show  thee  the 
word  of  Gov. 

•  According  to  Nflldiat,  vho  assnres  us  H  locale,  signifies  in  or  oji  a. 
place,  p.  217,  218,  Ed.  1734,  as  well  as  motion  to  a  place  where  that  mo- 
tion ceases.  The  author,  indeed,  of  the  notes  on  Noldius  denies  this,  hut 
2Sam.  xii.  IC,  Dan.  x.  9,  Jcr.  .\xiz.  places  mentioned  by  Noldius,  prove 
him  mistaken. 


^^  COXCEENING  THBtR  CITIES,  HOUSES,  8cc 

This  sleeping  on  the  (erraces  of  their  houses  is  only  in 
mimruer  time.  Bj  this  then  we  may  deterniine  in  the  gen- 
eral, that  this  s«cret  inauguration  of  Saul  was  in  that  part 
of  the  year. 

Dr.  Shaw  has  cited  this  passage  concerning  Samuel  and 
Saul,  when  mentioning  the  various  uses  to  which  the  peo- 
ple of  the  East  put  the  flat  roofs  of  their  houses,  though 
without  explaining  it;  but  he  has  not  mentioned  among 
the  other  Scriptures,  that  relating  to  Nebuchadnezzar, 
who  is  described  by  the  Prophet  as  walking  on  the  roof 
of  his  palace,  and  taking  a  view  of  Babylon,  when  he  fell, 
upon  surveying  that  mighty  city,  into  that  haughty  soIilo> 
qay,  which  brought  after  it  a  dreadful  humiliation* 

This  is  the  more  to  be  regretted,  because  though  many 
have,  all  have  not  considered  the  passage  in  this  light. 
Our  own  translation  in  particular  has  not,  but  renders  the 
words,  He  walked  in  the  palace  of  the  kingdom  of  Baby- 
lon, Dan.  iv.  29,  and  has  thrown  the  other  reading,  "  upon 
the  palace,"  into  the  marghi,  as  less  preferable.  But  to 
those  that  are  actjuainted  with  Eastern  customs,  who  rec- 
ollect the  passage,  which  Dr.  Shaw,  it  seems,  did  not, 
there  cannot  be  any  doubt  how  it  is  to  be  understood. 
''^Sur  la  terrasse,"  says  Sir  J.  Cbardin,  in  his  MS.  note 
on  this  place,  "  pour  le  plaisir  de  la  vue,  pour  de  la  con- 
siderer  la  ville,  et  pour  prendre  la  frais,  et  c'est  ce  que 
prouve  le  verset  suivant."  That  is,  he  walked  upon  the 
terrace,  for  the  pleasure  of  the  prospect,  to  take  a  view  of 
the  city,  and  to  enjoy  the  fresh  air,  which  the  following 
Terse  proves.  Nothing  can  be  more  natural  than  this  in- 
terpretation. 

OBSERVATION  XI. 

OF    THEIB   ARBOURS   ON    HO^^SBTOPS. 

No  wonder  they  sleep  onfy  on  the  tops  of  the  houses 
in  summer,  since,  however  pleasant  these  arbours  and 


CONCERNING  THEIR  CITIES,  HOUSES,  &e.  SOI 

these  wicker  work  closets  may  be  in  the  dry  part 
of  the  jear,  they  must  be  rcry  disagreeable  in  the  wet, 
and  they  that  should  then  lodge  in  them  would  be  expos- 
ed to  a  continual  dropping.  To  be  limited  consequently 
to  such  a  place,  to  have  no  other  apartment  to  live  in, 
niusf  be  very  incommoding. 

To  such  circumstances  then  probably  it  Js  that  Solo* 
mon  alludes,  when  be  says,  It  is  better  to  dwell  in  a  tot- 
tier  of  the  housetop,  than  tvith  a  brawling  wonnan  in  a 
wide  house,  ProvAxi.  9,  and  chap.  xxr.  24.  A  corner, 
covered  with  boughs  or  rushes,  and  made  into  a  little  ar- 
bour, in  which  they  used  to  sleep  in  summer,  bnt  whick 
must  have  been  a  very  incommodious  place  to  have  made 
an  entire  dwelling.  To  the  same  allusion  belong  these 
other  expressions,  that  speak  of  the  contentions  of  a  wife 
being  like  a  continual  dropping,  Prov.  xix.  13,  and  chap* 
xxvii.  15,  pat  together,  they  amonnf  to  this,  "It  is  better 
to  have  no  other  habitation  than  an  arbonr  on  the  house* 
top,  and  be  there  exposed  to  the  wet  of  winter,  which  it 
oftentimes  of  several  days  continuance,  than  to  dwell  id  a 
wide  and  commodious  home  with  a  brawling  woman,  for  ber 
contentions  are  a  continaal  dropping,  and  wide  as  the  houM 
may  be,  you  will  not  be  able  to  avoid  them,  a»d  get  out 
of  their  reach." 

Nor  will  it  be  any  objectioTJ  fo  this  observatioB,  if  it . 
should  be  affirmed,  that  the  booths  and  wicker  work  closets 
are  not  made  at  the  corners  of  their  parapet  walte,  but  on 
the  middle  of  their  roofs,  as  very  probably  they  are,  the 
better  to  receive  the  fresh  air ;  since  the  word  r\:spinnath, 
translated  corner,  docs  not  only  signify  a  place  where 
two  walls  join,  but  a  tower  also,  as  appears  Zepb.  i.  18, 
and  consequently  may  signify  such  a  sort  of  arbour,  as 
well  as  one  formed  by  means  of  two  joining  walls.* 

*  Dr.  Russell's  MS.  rtote  hete  casts  man  Fight  ofi  Aia  4nlj«ct.  He  Mj*, 
"  these  booths  are  often  placet]  near  the  walls ;  as  in  the  middle  *>[  the 
terrace  they  would  be  too  much  exposed  to  the  wind.    Edit. 


308  CONCERNING  THEIR  CITIES,  HOUSES,  &c. 

OBSERVATION  XII. 

A  NUMBER  OF    FAMILIES    LIVE   IN  THE    SAME    HOUSE    IN 
THE    EAST. 

It  is  supposed  under  the  last  Observation,  that  Solo- 
mon represents  a  house  as  sometimes  divided  between  a 
Dumber  of  families,  anciently,  in  Jiidea,  as  it  often  is 
amongst  us;  since  he  gives  ua.to  understand,  that  in  di- 
viding the  apartments  of  a  house,  it  would  be  belter  to  be 
put  off  with  a  booth  on  the  roof,  and  have  no  other  room, 
than  to  possess  a  palace  for  largeness  together  with  a 
contentious  wife.  it.iui^A'Hi^nmH.;  attf  >» 

Nor  is  this  to  be  wondered  at,  since  at  this  day  a  num< 
ber  of  families  live  in  one  house  in  those  countries,  divid- 
ing it  between  them;  and  this,  notwithstanding  the  priva> 
cy  with  which  the  Eastern  families  are  obliged  to  live  ;  by 
their  jealous  masters.  This  Dr.  Shaw  affirms  to  be  true 
of  Barbary,*  though  he  makes  no  use  of  it  for  the  illustra- 
tion of  those  places  of  Scripture,  Egmont  and  Hej  man 
speak  of  the  same  practice  in  Egypt,  and  tell  us,  that  the 
inhabitants  of  Rosetta  live  in  general  in  large  public  build- 
ings, called  Okel,  built  of  brick,  very  lofty,  and  in  a  square 
form,  having  an  open  court  in  the  middle  very  convenient 
for  tradesmen.f  Some  of  the  houses  of  the  great,  design- 
ed for  a  single  family,  are  on  the  other  hand  extremely 
large,  are  built  round  two  courts,  and  are  filled  with  ser- 
vants :  there  is  such  a  thing  then  as  wide  houses  of  socie- 
ty) among  them  as  Solomon  speaks.  Russell  may  be 
Consulted  on  this  point  by  those  that  are  curious,  as  may 
also  Egmont  and  Heyman,  vol.  2,  p.  83,  and  p.  253,  254. 

OBSERVATION  XIII. 

UPPER    ROOMS   THE    MOST     SPLENDID    IN    THE    EASTERN 
HOUSES. 

I  DO  not  know  that  it  has  been  remarked,  that  the  chief 
and  the  most  ornamented  apartments  of  the  palace  Jehoi- 

•  P.SOi,  and  295.  t  Vol.  ii.  p.  113,  114. 


CONCERNING  THEIR  CITIES,  HOUSES,  he.  308 

akim  set  himself  to  build,  are  represented  bj  Jeremiah  as 
upper  rooms,  ch.  xxii.  13,  Wo  be  to  him  that  buildeth  his 
house  by  unrighteousness,  and  his  chambers  by  rvrongf 
that  saith,  I  will  build  me  a  wide  house,  and  large,  or 
thorough  aired  chambers;  but  I  believe  none  of  our 
authors  would  express  themselves  after  this  manner:  the 
lower  rooms  would  be  the  chief  objects  of  their  attention* 
It  was  perfectly  natural,  however,  in  Jeremiah,  there 
is  reason  to  think ;  for  the  chief  rooms  of  the  houses 
of  Aleppo  at  this  day  are  those  above  ;  the  ground  floor 
there  being  chiefly  made  use  of  for  their  horses  and  ser- 
vants.* 

Perhaps  the  Prophet  Amos  referred  to  this  circum- 
stance, when  he  spoke  of  the  heavens  as  God's  chambers, 
the  most  noble  and  splendid  apartments  of  the  palace  of 
God,  and  where  his  presence  is  chiefly  manifested  ;  and 
the  bundle  or  collection  of  its  offices,  its  numerous  little, 
mean  apartments,  the  divisions  of  this  earth.     Amos  ix.  6. 

OBSERVATION  XIV. 

CURIOUS    ACCOUNT    OF    THE    DIFFERENT    KINDS  OF    WIN- 
DOWS,   MENTIONED    IN    THE    SCRIPTURES. 

The  ancient  Jewish  windows  seem  not  to  have  been  of 
one  kind  :  two  different  words  are  used  in  the  Hebrew  to 
express  these  conveniences,  and  other  circumstances  lead 
us  to  apprehend  they  were  of  two  sorts  :f  the  one  very 
small,  and  used  only  for  looking  abroad  in  a  concealed 
manner;  the  other,  large  and  airy. 

Irwin,  in  his  voyage  up  the  Red  Sea,  has  unintentional- 
ly given  us  a  description  of  the  first  of  these,  expressed  in 
the  Hebrew  by  the  term  arubbaht  which  appears  to  be 
nlso  used  to  express  those  openings  through  which  pigeons 

•  Russell,  vol.  i.  p.  18. 
t  See  the  note  «t  the  end  of  this  Ohserration.    En  it 


991         CONCERNING  THBIR  CITIES,  HOUSES,  he. 

passed  into  the  cavities  of  the  rocks,  or  into  those  build- 
ings which  were  designed  for  the  reception  of  their  nests, 
in  Isaiah  Ix.  8. 

8peaking  of  their  abode,  and  indeed  of  a  sort  of  con- 
finement which  they  suffered,  at  Ghinnab,  in  the  Upper 
Egypt,  Irwin  says,*  that  one  of  the  windows  of  the  house 
in  which  they  lodged,  and  through  which  they  looked  into 
the  street,  more  resembled  a  pigeon  hole,  than  any  thing 
else.  And  in  a  succeeding  page,f  he  describes  the  win- 
dows as  very  small  and  very  high.  The  word  is  indeed 
derived  from  a  root  which  expresses  the  laying  in  wait  for 
a  person,  such  people  looking  through  small  holes,  waiting 
for  the  approach  of  their  prey. 

In  that  early  state  of  things,  and  in  a  country  where 
fires  are  but  little  used,  it  is  no  wonder  that  one  and  the 
same  word  is  used  for  one  of  these  peeping  holes,  and  for 
an  outlet  to  smoke.;};  In  our  own  country,  a  few  centuries 
ago,  chimnies  were  little  in  use,  and  a  hole,  in  or  near  the 
top  of  the  room,  was  thought  su£Scient  for  the  smoke's 
discharge. 

The  other  kind  of  windows,  expressed  by  a  very  differ- 
ent word,  were  large  enough  to  admit  a  person  of  mature 
age  being  thrown  out  of  them  as  happened  in  the  case  of 
Jezebel.$    Lattices  were  in  use,  we  know,||  before  that 

•  p.  i$5.  t  P  201.     • 

^  For  in  that  sense  it  is  used,  Hos.  siii.  S.  §  2  Kings  ix.  30,  32,  33. 

II  Frota  Judges  T- 2S.  The  window  ofRahab,  through  which  she  let 
down  the  two  Isrtelitish  spies,  was  of  the  same  large  sort,  as  the  cir- 
cumstances show ;  and  the  binding  the  cord  in  a  network  form  in  the 
window,  might  appear  natural  enough,  as  answering  the  purpose  of  a  lat- 
tiot,  and  so  occasion  no  suspicion.  Perhaps  it  was  previously  to  this,  made 
use  of  for  that  purpose,  and  might  be  of  scarlet,  as  women  of  her  profes- 
Hon  in  the  East,  at  this  day,  affect  magnificence  extremely,  and  might  do 
M  then.  It  is  otherwise  difficult  to  account  for  its  colour.  Certainl^r  the 
£a«t^a  lattice*  now  are  made  of  very  difiei'ent  materials,  wood,  metal, 
marble.    Harmer. 

Mr.  Harmer  here  takes  it  for  granted,  as  do  many  others,  that  Rahab 
was  really  a  public  prostitute  f  but  for  the  honor  of  the  Israelites,  th« 
spies,  and  the  good  woman  herself,  let  it  be  known,  that  it  has  been  often 
proved,  and  may  be  demoaslrated  that  the  word  HillT  zonah,  Judg.  xi.  1,  and 


CONCERNING  THEIR  CITIES,  HOUSES,  kc 


306 


lime,  but  they  appear  not  to  have  been  universally  used 
even  in  those  large  windows  ;  or  if  they  were,  were  move- 
able. The  windows  of  the  oratory  of  Daniel*  seem  to 
have  been  quite  open  to  view,  when  the  shutters  were  re- 
moved, since  Daniel  chose  to  make  his  testimony  to  the 
exclusive  worship  of  God,  neglected  by  others,  as  public 


«-!jy»,  [leb.  xi.  SI,  means  a  hostess,  publican,  or  innkeeper,  and  so  it  was 
properly  understood  by  ttie  ChRldee  Paraphrast,  who  renders  the  term 
i<r\''p'\i)3  aiMMi  ittethapundekeetha,  &  ivomav,  Sin  inn-keeper,  the  Chal- 
dee  term  p'\i)2pundak,  beiiiganevident  corruption  of  the  (jrcek  wavcToxhof, 
an  inn,  as  Buxtnrf  lias  very  properly  remarked.  As  to  the  'JtSTI  0171  r\1pn 
tikkevath  chut  hashshnnee  of  the  sacred  text,  which  we  translate  line  of 
scarlet  thread,  I  believe  it  means  sna^Ay  a  piece  of  cloth  made  of  scarlet 
thread,  which  the  woman  probably  hung  out  by  way  iiifag,  which  might 
have  been  the  sign  agreed  on  between  her  and  the  spies.     Edit. 


m- 


*  Dan.  vi.  10. 


There  are  not  less  than  seven  different  words  which  our  translators  have 
rendered  by  the  term  -windo-w,  in  our  common  English  liible. 

1.  p /n  hallon.  Gen  viii.  6.  Jos.  ii.  15,  from  tiT\  halal,to  shine  briskly, 
to  irradiate,  probably  because  some  very  tratisluccnt  medium  was  used  to 
introiluce  and  diffuse  the  light  through  their  tpartraents.  For  this  pur- 
pose, polistied  oyster  shells  are  still  used  in  the  East. 

^.  njIK  arubbah,  Hos.  xiii.  3.  2  Kings  vii.  19.  Isai.  Ix  8,  from  31N  Arab, 
to  lie  in  -wait,  as  Mr.  H.  has  properly  observed,  probably  means  such  open- 
ings as  those  in  ancient  caslle» through  which  tliey  shot  tlieir  arrows. 

3,  *inX  tsohar.  Gen.  vi.  16,  and  elsewhere.  The  word  in  Gen.  v.  26, 
properly  means  something  pellucid  or  transparent,  to  admit  the  light  ofth« 
meridian  sun,  placed  in  the  roof  or  top  of  the  house.  The  word  frequently 
eccurs  in  the  Bible,  and  is  often  translated  noon,  and  noon  day, 

4  2W\<  ashnab,  Jud.  v.  28,  Prov.  vii.  6.  This  word  appears  to  raeau 
properly  a  lattice,  to  ventilate  and  coot  the  inner  apartments. 

5.  IXifTi^O  sAemesAoi,  Isaiah  liv.  12,  from  VttXt  the  sun,  because  such  win- 
dows were  the  medium  through  which  the  solar  light  was  transmitted  ia 
their  houses. 

6.  ^pSy  shekvph,  1  Kings  vi.  4.  vii.  4,  5.  This  probably  means  no  more 
than  an  aperture  '"  the  wall,  with  a  shutter  occasionally  to  close-  it ;  and  is 
different  from  the  p'^H  hallon,  or  roof- window,  which  always  stood  open  to 
admit  the  light. 

7.  V)2  kaveen.  Dan.  vi.  10,  probably  frona  TW2  kava,  to  burn,  or  scorch, 
because  placed  in  that  part  of  the  houae  on  which  tUe  p^tt-meriiliun  or  af- 
ternoon sun  shone.  ,!  ..ja.  if    i4i    h    "iJf^'i-  "*. 

Perhaps  most  of  these  terms  mean  no  more  than  the  openings  in  the 
walls;  but  what  the  transparent  substances  were,  i)lacc(l  in  these  opcninjs, 
we  know  not.     Kdit.  ,  ii,i*.[--  k. Jii-*^5S si*  -J  <...„;.' 

39 


VOL.  1. 


j^  CONCERNING  THEIR  CITIES,  HOUSES,  k«. 

as  might  be,  whereas  the  action  would  have  been  a  good 
deal  concealed  bj  thick  worked  lattices. 

It  maj  not  be  improper  to  add,  that  the  Word  that  ex- 
presses those  very  small  windows  is  used  by  Solomon  in 
Eccles.  xii.  where  he  compares  the  human  body  lo  a 
house,  or,  to  a  palace  with  guards,  &c.  Consequently 
the  windows  of  the  apartments  of  the  women,  that  opened 
outward,  were  in  those  days  wont  to  be  very  small.  Tlie 
quality  of  Jezebel,  and  her  circumstances  at  that  time, 
were  very  particular,  and  will  not  alScn^  any  iproof  of 
what  I  have  been  now  observing. 


OBSERVATION  XV. 

OP  THE    MATERIALS    VS^D  FOR    BUILDING   IN  THE  EASl".  ' 

The  walls  of  the  Eastern  hocuses  are  very  thick^  in  order 
to  shelter  the  inhabitants  more  efTectuaily  from  the  great 
heats.*  They  are  also  sometimes  built  of  stone,  and  some- 
times only  of  dried  mud.  Egmont  and  Heyman  found 
them  built  of  both  these  at  Tiberias, f 

The  great  and  magnificent  houses  are  in  some  places 
built  of  mud,  or  clay,  on  the  outsides,  of  which  the  ingen- 
ious editor  of  the  Ruins  of  Balbec  gives  us  the  following 
account,  and  of  the  inconveniences  they  occasion.  "This 
village,"  says  he,J'Cara,  "  is  pleasantly  seated  on  a  rising 
ground.  The  common  mud,  formed  into  the  shape  of 
bricks,  and  dried  iu    the  sun,§  of  which   its    houses  are 

*  Egmont  and  Hejinan,  Vol.  i.  p.  SOO.  f  "^'- »'•?•  32.  *  P- 2. 

§So  Sir  J.  Chardin,  in  the  sixth  volume  of  his  MS.  tells  us,  that  the 
liastern  bricks  are  in  their  shape  like  those  of  Kurope,  and  in  common 
only  dried  in  the  sun.  That  they  are  made  of  clny  ■well  moistened  Mith 
water  and  "liscd  with  straw,  •whicli,  according  to  their  way  of  getting  the 
grain  out  of  the  ear,  is  cut  into  small  pieces,  by  a  machine  they  make  use 
Of,  instead  of  a  flail  for  threshing,  and  which  he  describes  very  much  as 
otlier  authors  have  done.  I'his  cut  straw,  he  also  tells  us.  is  used  instead 
of  hny  for  all  tlicir  domestic  animals,  Avhich  occasions  their  towns  and 
fieldsto  be  full  'jf  it.    This  usefulness  of  the  straw  for  their  cattle,  and  their 


'Concerning  their  cities,  houses,  &c.        3or 

built,  have  at  some  distance,  the  appearance  of  white 
stone.  The  ghort  duration  of  such  materials  is  not  the 
only  objection  to  them  j  for  they  raake  the  streets  dusty 
when  there  is  wind,  and  dirty  when  there  is  rain.  These 
inconveniences  are  felt  at  Damascus,  which  is  mostly 
built  in  the  same  manner.'*  They  are  felt  indeed !  for 
Maundrell  says,  that  upon  a  violent  rain  at  Damascus,  the 
whole  city  becomes  by  the  washing  of  the  houses,  as  it 
were  a  quagmire.* 

Agreeably  to  this  account,  the  Prophet  supposes  the 
quantity  of  the  dust  and  mire  of  the  streets  of  the  Eas- 
tern pities  was  very  gr^at,  in  that  passage,  Tyrus  did 
build  herself  a  strong  hold,  and  heaped  up  silver  as  the 
dust,  and  fine  gold  as  the  mire  of  the  streets.  Zech.  ix.  3. 
The  energy  of  this  image,  as  1  apprehended  it  was  in  the 
mind  of  the  Prophet,  I  have  no  where  met  with  pointed 
out  with  the  distinctness  in  which  the  preceding  quotation 
places  it. 

What  is  said  of  the  colour  of  the  houses  of  Cara, 
ihat  they  have  the  appearance  of  white  stone,  will  ac- 
count for  the  using  the  same  Hebrew  word  p'?  leben,  to 
signify  a  fcrtcAr,  which  is  used  to  %\gn\iy  2i  while  thing ; 
Ihe  Eastern  bricks  are,  often  at  least,  naturally  white. 
••  Their  buildings  are  frequently  of  stone  still ;  Moses 
supposes  their  houses  were  anciently  built  after  this  man- 
fier  in  Canaan,  Lev.  xiv.  40. 

'■'  The  greater  durableness  of  such  edifices  has  not,  how- 
ever, prevailed  on  those  people  to  build  universally  with 
them,  and  especially  in  some  countries,  no  not  where 
stones  might  be  procured  in  plenty  ;  so  Nor  den  describes 
the  Egyptian  and  Arabian  architecture  as  differing  from 

using  it  notwithstanding  ?it  first  for  their  bric]:s,  and  afterward  stubble, 
would  incline  one  to  believe  the  straw  was  not  used  by  the  Israelites  in 
Kgjpt  for  fuel,  bat  as  part  of  the  composition  of  their  bricks ;  stubble 
would  liave  always-done  as  w«ll  for  burning  t^lenl ;  nor  would  the  Egypt- 
ians havo  been  so  lavish  of  ihcir  straw. 

»   P.  124,  123. 


9f|  CONCERNING  THEIH  CITIES,  HOUSES,  *bc. 

the  Roman,  being  mud  and  slime.*  They  seem  to  choose 
these  materials  at  Damascus,  for  they  build  there  after 
this  manner,  though  Maundrell  expressly  observes  they 
have  plenty  of  stones  in  their  neighbourhood.  The  arehi- 
tecture  of  the  country  of  Job  seems  to  have  been  of  the 
same  kind,  for  he  speaks  of  adulterers  digging  through 
houses,  Job  xxiv.  16. 

These  walls  of  sun-burnt  brick,  when  moistened  wifh 
copious  showers,  must  have  been  liable  to  accidents  of  this 
kind,  at  the  same  time  that  the  thickness  of  them  must 
have  made  the  term  digging  peculiarly  expressive. 

Dr.  Shaw  has  taken  notice  of  the  mouldering  do.wn  of 
some  Eastern  buildings,  upon  a  shower  of  rain,  when  he 
was  at  Tozer,  p.  136,  and  he  supposes  that  circumstances 
might  illustrate  what  Ezekiel  says  of  the  t/jifewperetf  mor- 
tar, ch.  xiii.  11.  How  the  dissolution  of  bricks  or  tiles, 
by  the  application  of  wet  to  them,  explains  the  not  prop- 
erly tempering  their  mortar,  is  not  very  clear  ;  and  Sir 
J.  Chardin  gives  »rs  a  more  distrnct  account  of  this  matter, 
in  his  MS.  notes,  and  refers  to  Amos  vi.  11,  as  well  as 
that  passage  in  Ezekiel.  I  shall  here  set  down  his  account. 

"They  are  the  rains  which  cause  the  walls  to  fall, 
which  are  built  of  clay,  the  mortar  plastering  dissolving. 
This  master  hinders  the  water  from  penetrating  the  bricks, 
but^^  the  plastering  has  been  soaked  with  wet,  the 
wind  cracks  it,  and  occasions  the  rain  in  some  succeeding 
shower  to  get  between,  and  dissolve  every  thing."  Dr. 
Shaw  does  not  mention  this  plastering,  which  however 
the  Prophet  seems  to  refer  to,  since  he  complains  of  its 
not  being  properly  tempered  ;  whereas  no  Eastern  unburnt 
bricks,  however  tempered,  can  be  supposed  to  resist  vio- 
lent rains. 

Sir  John's  account  illustrates  the  breaches  and  the  clefts 
mentioned  by  Amos  too  in  a  very  happy  manner  :  many 
great  houses,  as  well  as  little  ones,  being  built  of  thes« 
very  fragile  materials.  - 

•  P.  81.    Second  Part 


CONCERNING  THEIR  CITIES,  HOUSES,  he.  3a» 


OBSERVATION  XVI. 

'iU  ill' 

^^j    ,  OF    THE    MORTAR   USED    IS    BUILDING. 

If  (he  Eastern  bricks  are  not  very  durable,  their  mor- 
tar, especially  one  sort  of  it,  is  extremelj  so,*  composed 
according  to  Dr.  Shaw,  of  one  part  of  sand,  two  of  wood 
ashes,  and  three  of  lime,  well  mixed  together,  and  beaten 
for  three  days  and  nights  incessantly  with  wooden  mallets.f 

The  Doctor  does  not  apply  this  observation  to  the  il- 
lustrating any  passage  of  Scripture;  but  Sir  J.  Chardin^ 
in  his  MS.  note  on  Mai.  iv.  3,  Ye  shall  tread  down  the 
nicked,  for  they  shall  be  ashes  under  the  soles  of  your 
feel,  supposes  the  Prophet  alludes  there  to  the  custom  of 
making  mortar  with  lime  and  ashes  in  the  East,  collected 
from  their  baths.  J 

The  people  of  Africa  are  said  to  use  mallets,  but  it 
should  seem  from  the  Prophets,  the  people  of  the  more 
Eastern  countries  trod  their  mortar  in  these  times,  Isaiah 
xli.  25.  Nahum  iii.  14.  In  doing  this,  it  was  by  no  means 
necessary  that  their  feet  should  be  naked. 
''"  Some  learned  men  have  supposed  the  wicked  here  arc 
compared  to  ashes,  because  the  Prophet  had  been  peak- 
ing of  their  destruction  under  the  notion  of  burning,  v.  1 : 
but  the  sacred  writers  are  not  wont  to  keep  close  to  those 
figures  they  first  proposed,  this  paragraph  ofMalachi  is  a 
proof  of  it :  and  if  they  had,  he  would  not  have  spoken 
of  treading  on  the  wicked  like  ashes,  if  it  had  not  been 
customary  in  those  times  to  tread  ashes,  which,  it  seems, 
was  done  when  they  made  mortar.^ 

*  Manndrell,  p.  125,  speaks  of  mud  walls,  and  doors  adorned  with  marblt.- 
portals,  carved  and  inlaid  wiiii  great  beaut/. 

f  P.  20C.  i  Figure  prise  de  ceux  qui  font  co  mortier  compote 

de  chaax  de  cendre  e«rroy^e  de  bains. 

$In  a  MS.  note  on  this  place,  Sr.  Bastell  proposes  the  followiog  querv : 
"  Mif^ht  not  this  allude  to  the  terracet,  of  their  floors  ftud  housetops,  o^ 
which  athet  are  an  ingredient .'"  Ebit. 


310  CONCERNING  THEIR  CITIES,    HOUSES,  kc.        "^ 

y 

OBSERVATION  XVII. 

OF    BRICK   KILN'3    IN    THE  EAST. 

If  their  bricks,  in  fhose  hot  and  dry  countries,  are  in 
general  only  dried  in  the  sun,  not  burnt,  there  is  some  rea- 
son to  be  doubtful  whether  the  Hebrew  word  pbn  malben 
signiSes  a  brick  kiln,  as  multitudes  besides  our  translators 
have  supposed. 

The  bricks  used  in  the  construction  of  the  Egyptian 
canals,  must  have  been  well  burnt :  those  dried  in  the  sun 
could  have  lasted  no  time.  But  bricks  for  this  use  could 
not  have  been  often  wanted.  They  were  not  necessary 
for  the  building  those  treasure  cities  which  are  mentioned 
Exod.i.  II.  One  of  the  pyramids  is  built  with*  sun-dried 
bricks,  which  Sir  J.  Chardin  tells  us  are  dwrafo/fjf  as  well 
as  accommodated  to  the  temperature  of  the  air  there ; 
which  last  circumstance  is,  I  presume,  the  reason  the^ 
are  in  such  common  use  in  these  very  hot  countries. 
There  must  then  be  many  places  used  in  the  East  for  the 
making  bricks,  where  there  are  no  kilns  at  all ;  and  such 
a  place,  I  apprehend,  the  word  pSa  malben  signifies ; 
and  it  should  seem  to  be  the  perpetual  association  of  a 
kiln,  and  of  the  places  where  bricks  are  made,  with  us  in 
the  West,  that  has  occasioned  the  word  to  be  translated 
brick  kiln. 

The  interpretation  I  have  given  best  suits  Jer.  xliii.  9. 
The  smoke  of  the  brick  kiln,  in  the  neighbourhood  of  a 
royal  Egyptian  palace,  would  not  have  agreed  \ery  weU 
with  the  Eastern  cleanliness  and  perfumes. 

♦  Nordeii.  vol.  i.  p.  129.      i  oll  ^9i; 

•f  This  pyramid  of  brick  is  supposed  to  be  that  mentioned  by  Herodotus, 
Mbuiitby  Cheops,  and  therefore  very  ancient:  an  evident  proof  of  (he 
great  durableness  of  brieks  of  that  kind  iu  Egypt.    Norden,  p.  ISim 


CONCERNING  THEIR  CITIES,  HOUSES,  kc.  3H 


OBSERVATION  XVIII. 

METHOD    OF   TASTENING    THE    PINS    AND    NAILS    IN    THE 
MUD    AND    BRICK     WALLS. 

The  pins,  or  nails,  that  are  fa^ened  dp  in  these  Eas- 
tern houses  are  fixed  very  securely,  according  t^the  MS, 
C  J  a  circumstance  that  it  should  seem  was  attended  to  an- 
ciently, Isai.  xxii.  23,  /  will  fasten  him  as  a  nail  in  a 
sure  place. 

The  account  the  MS.  gives  is  this :  "  They  do  not 
drive  with  a  hammer  the  nails  that  are  put  into  the  Eas- 
tern walls;  the  walls  are  too  hard,  being  of  brick,  or  if 
they  are  of  clay,  they  are  too  mouldering;  but  they  fis^ 
them  in  the  brick  work  as  they  are  building.  T'hey  are 
large  nails,  with  square  heads  like  dice,  well  made,  the 
ends  bentso  as  to  make  them  cramp  irons.  They  com- 
monly place  them  at  the  windows  and  doors,  in  order  to» 
hang  upon  them,  when  they  like,  veils  and  curtains."* 

The  nails  the  Prophet  refers  to  were  for  anc'btr  jT  •. 
pose;  however,  the  people  of  these    countries  &T^^t.y 
careful  to  fasten  them  very  securely  in  their  fauDdii\^s. 

e  OBSERVATION  XIX. 

I, 

METHODS    OF    ADORNING    THEIA    HOUSES    IN    THE    EAS^^. 

When  our  travellers  express  (heir  surprise  at  the  con- 
trast between  the  outside  and  inside  appearance  of  :he 
Eastern  palaces,  and,  in  order  to  convey  the  same  to  their 
readers,  give  a  particular  account  of  the  magnifioence 
within,  they  do  it  by  speaking  of  their  water  works,  their 
Mosaic  pavements,  the  incrustation  of  their  walls  with  ilie 

•  "  Pint  and  n«il$,  saji  Dr.  Rusiell,  MS.  note,  are  »ie1dom  nsrd  for 
hanging  clothes,  &c.  upon,  which  are  usually  laid  one  over  the  Other  on  a 
ftlicat  or  particular  kind  of  chair."    Kdit. 


J^J^  CO>JCERNING  THEIR  CITIES,  HOUSES,  kc. 

most  exquisite  marbles,  their  carved  wainscoltings  of 
wood  heightened  with  painting  and  gilding,  cornices  filled 
with  porcelain,  and  gold  and  silver  toys,  &c.=^  but  not  one 
word  of  ivori/y  used  either  about  the  house,  or  by  waj  of 
furniture. 

The  Romans,  on  the  other  hand,  ornamented  their 
houses  anciently  with  ivory,  as  well  as  made  use  of  it  in 
Ibeir  household  stuff. 

Non  Effur  neque  aureum 

Mesl  renidet  in  dorao  lacunar  :  | 

Non  trabes  Hymettix 

Premant  columnas  ultimo  recisas 
•  Africa :  &cc. 

Neither  ivory  nor  a  gilded  ceiling  shine  in  my  house :  ROr  do  beams 
from  Hymettus  rest  upon  columns  cut  in  the  furthest  part  of  Africa, 

says  Horace.  Od.  lib.  2,  Od.  xviii.  v.  1 — 5.  Prose  wri- 
ters speak  of  the  same  ;  and  the  critics,  to  illustrate  those 
passages  of  the  Prophets  which  speak  of  ivory  houses, 
have  produced  citations  of  this  kind  from  them. 
"There  is  some  resemblance  to  be  found  between  the 
old  Roman  and  Eastern  way  of  adorning  their  apartments. 
The  ceilings  at  Aleppo,  according  to  Russell,  are  of  wood, 
neatly  painted,  and  sometimes  gilded :  this  gilding  ex- 
plains the  aureum  lacunar  of  Horace.  But  it  seems  that 
the  old  Romans  thought,  that  the  beauty  of  gold  appeared 
with  the  greatest  advantage  when  mingled  with  ivory,  or 
something  of  that  sort  ;t  and  therefore,  their  ceilings  were 
not  only  gilded  like  the  Aleppine,  but  inlaid  with  ivory  .J' 
The  Eastern  people  might  possibly  use  ivory  formerly  in 
their  buildings,  as  the  Romans  afterward  did,  though  it  is 
no  part  of  their  present  luxury  ;  their  customs  are  not  in- 

,  i*  Se«  l^ttBsell,  MailletLet.  11,  Egmontand  Heyman,  vol.  ii.  p.  253,  254fc| 
,)i     >\  M-,9  t  Vide  Virg.  Georg.  1  2.  v.  191—193.  ,| 

t»rft ') '     + Quale  per  artemtl  Ot  tUt'f 9l|{»^  M  tj  laH 

M|l|    ,  Inclusum  Buxo,  aut  Oricia  Terebintho  '  ., 

Lucet  Ebur.  JEn.  10.  v.  135—137. 

.J.    « ,' 

In  a  MS.  note  on  this  place,  Dr.  Russell  says  :  "  Ivori/  is  likewise  employ, 
ed  at  Aleppo,  in  the  decoration  of  some  of  the  more  expensive  apart- 
ments. I  do  not  recollect  it  in  ceilings,  but  in  cupboard  doors,  panneis," 
&C.    See  the  note  on  page  314.        Edjj.,  ^ 


CONCERJrtJJG  THEIR  CITIES,  HOUSES,  &c.  313 

Variable,  though  they  are  very  lasting.  However,  I  have 
Sometimes  thought,  that  as  the  ancients  were  not  very 
nice  in  distinguishing  things,  it  is  very  possible  that  the 
sumptuousness  of  the  old  Eastern  buildings  might  not  at 
all  differ,  in  this  respect,  from  that  of  the  modern  j  and  I 
have  been  doubtful  whether  they  did  not  mean  houses 
built  of  polished  marble,  which  is  white  and  shining  like  ivo- 
ry, by  the  ivory  houses  mentioned,  Ps.  xlv.  8, 1  Kings  xxii. 
39,  Amos  iii.  15.  They  would  not,  it  is  certain,  have 
been  less  exact  in  doing  so,  than  the  Romans  in  calling  a 
lion  a  bear,  and  the  panther  a  rat  of  Africa.* 
r  The  Jews  of  after  times  made  use  of  marble,  and  affect- 
ed that  which  was  white,  when  they  designed  to  give 
the  highest  magnificence  to  their  buildings.  Thus  Jose- 
phus  expressly  mentionsf  the  whiteness  of  the  stone 
made  use  of  by  Simon  the  high  priest,  when  he  erected  a 
most  sumptuous  monument  for  the  Maccabees ;  and  of 
that  used  by  Herod  the  Great  in  the  splendid  buildings 
of  Cesarea  ;  and  the  polishing  of  both. 

Dr.  Shaw  tells  usj  the  Grecian  artists  did  not  begin  to 
use  marble,  either  in  sculpture  or  building,  till  the  year 
720  before  Christ.  The  Jews  might  very  well  take  up 
the  use  of  it  two  or  three  hundred  years  sooner,  which  is 
about  the  time  we  first  meet  with  the  mention  of  ivory 
houses,  and  ivory  palaces  in  the  Scriptures.  If  the  re- 
mains of  some  of  the  Egyptian  structures  are  of  that  re- 
mote antiquity  they  are  imagined  to  be,  that  people  must 
have  used  marble  long  before  the  Jews,  so  far  as  we  know 
their  affairs,  as  well  as  long-  before  the  Greeks  ;  and  in- 
deed it  is  probable  that  the  Jews  and  Tyrians  borrowed 
the  use  of  it  from  the  Egyptians,  as  Vitruvius  tells  us  the 
Romans  did  the  art  of  incrustating  buildings  with  it* 
But  it  is  however  to  be  remembered,  that  the  marble  of  the 
most  ancient  Egyptian  structures,  and  particularly  of  the 
pyramids,  is  not  polished,  according  to   Norden;  §  the  art 

•See  Shaw's  Trav.  p.  172. 
I  Antiq.  Jud.  lib.  13,  e.  9.  and  lib.  15.  c.  6.  ^  P.  SC8.  aote. 

§  Vol.  L  p.  135» 
VOL.    T.  40 


3|g  CONCERNING  THEIR  ClTHiSi  jflOUSES,  &*. 

of  polishing  marble  not  being  tben,  b?.;suppo^s,  kno^n 
among  them.  He  has  not  any  \fher^,  that  I  remeriiber,  at- 
tempted to  showwhen  Ihey  began  topoiish  their  marbles  ; 
it  might  then  possibly  not  be  Ip.ng.befare  the  tifjoe  of  those 
ivory  houses  of  which  the  Scriptures. speak,  ^iid  from  the 
resemblance  of  this  polished  marble  to, ivory^iit  might  be 
called  by  the  same  name.     But  thii^  is.jQaere  cpDJecturef,"^ 

•,.    ^  , 

OBSERVATIOI^  iKX.  • 

OF  THEIR  PAVEMENTS,  CtelI.l*fGS,  Scd. 

That  the  use  of  polished  marbl^j^  however,  was  not  so 
early,  in  Egypt  itself,  as  the  days  qi  JfloseSj  we  may  gather, 

•And  this,  which  at  best  wa^ but  mere  coi^i^fettlre,  hksbein  since  weaken- 
ed by  the  Letters  of  Lady  Mary  Wortley  Modtague,  which  assure  us,  th«lt 
she  found  ivory  made  use  of  in  fitting  up  tlie  harem  of  the  Kahyas  palace  at 
Adrianople.  Its  winter  apartments  being  wainscotted  with  inlaid  work 
of  mother  of  pearl,  i^ory  of  different  coloui's,  and  olive  wood,  like  the  little 
boxes  brought  from  that  country.  Vol.  ii  p.  161,  IG2,  edit.  3d.  I  never  met 
with  this  circumstance  before  in  books  of  travels  into  the  Levant,  but  as 
this  fact  cannot  now  be  questioned,  so,  without  doubt,  it  is  not  singular; 
Other  harems,  it  must  be  imagined,  are  adorned  in  the  same  raanner. 
Hasselquist  also  mentions  wainscotting  inlaid  with  crosses,  and  other  orua. 
menls  of  ivory,  in  an  Egyptian  chapel,  p.  62. 

The  choosing  olive,  out  of  every  other  kind  of  wood,  for  the  adorning 
these  sumptuous  apartments,  shows  the  elegance  and  grandeur  of  the  taste  ia 
which  Solomon's  temple  was  built,  wliere  the  doors  of  the  Oracle,  and  some 
other  parts,  were  of  olive  wood,*  Had  her  Ladyship  visited  the  harems  of 
some  of  the  princes  of  Arabia  Feli.v,  perhaps  she  might  have  made  obser- 
vations, which  might  have  explained  the  almug  or  algum  trees  of  Arabia, 
of  which  Solomon  made  pillars  for  the  bouse  of  the  Lord,  and  for  his  own 
hoilsc  :  an  inquiry  recommended  to  the  Danish  Academicians. 

The  Ambassadress  mentions  olive  wood,  and  mother  of  pearl,  in  another 
place,  vol.  iii.  p.  51.  as  also  incrustations  of  Japan  cliina. 

Sir  John  Chardin's  MS.  agrees  with  Lady  Montague's  account.  For 
after  observing  the  Chaldee  paraphrase  on  Amos  iii.  15,  explains  the  ivory 
houses  »f  houses  paved  with  ivory  ;  he  adds,  the  ceilings  of  the  Eastern 
houses  are  of  Mosaic  work,  and  for  the  most  part  of  ivory,  like  those  su- 
perb Talaar  of  Persia,  which  soV  ell  merit  a  description.  And  in  another 
place  he  observes,  that  by  the  beds  of  ivory  we  must  understand  those  ele- 
vations, estrades  ts  the  French  word  he  makes  use  of,  which  are  in  use  in  tbe 
Indies,  in  Turkey,  in  Persia,  among  the  great  only,  on  which  they  eat,  and 
on  which  they  lie.  ' 

•  Olive  wood  says  Dr.  Russell,  MS.  note,  is  common  in  this  country. 
Edit. 


CONCKBNING  THEIR  CITIES,  HOUSES,  he.  315 

I  think,  satisfacforilj  enough  from  a  circumstance  men* 
tioned  in  the  writings  of  that  Prophet :  for  when  he  would 
describe  with  grandeur  the  ajipearance  of  God  fo  the  el- 
ders of  Israel,  Exod.  xxiv.  10,  he  speaks  of  his  having  some- 
thing like  brick  work,  for  so  the  original  words,  n32'7  nzy?:^^ 
kemasah  libnath  signifj,  of  a  sapphire  colour  under  his 
feet,  but  transparent  as  the  bodj  of  Heaven. 

Had  polished  marble  been  used  for  pavements  then,  as 
it  was  afterward,  we  may  believe  that  Moses  would  have 
referred  to  them,  rather  than  to  a  pavement  of  brick  work, 
since  he  is  evidently  endeavouring  to  describe  the  Divine 
appearance  as  august;  pavements  then  of  that  sort  were 
not  in  use  at  that  time  in  Egypt,  we  may  conclude,  and 
consequently  the  polishing  of  marble  not  invented  ;  since 
when  polished,  it  was,  for  aught  we  know,  applied  to  pave- 
ments as  Eoon  as  to  anything  else,  and  if  not,  if  thought 
too  noble  a  thing  to  be  trampled  on,  might  yet  have  served 
Moses  to  compare  the  pavement  to  under  the  feet  of  the 
Divine  apparition,  if  be  had  had  any  notion  at  all  of  these 
polished  stones. 

The  expression,  there  was  something  like  brick  work 
under  his  feet,  seems  to  point  to  that  sort  of  pavement 
which  is  formed  of  painted  tiles,  or  bricks,  and  is  com- 
mon at  this  day  in  the  East,  according  to  Dr.  Shaw.* 
They  are  the  same,  I  suppose,  as  those  painted  tiles, 
with  which  he  tells  us  they  are  wo!it  frequently  to  adorn 
part  of  their  walls  by  incrustating  it  with  these  tiles,  if  I 
may  so  debase  that  term.  The  Doctor  does  not  particu. 
larly  describe  them,  but  it  appears  from  other  writers 
that  they  are  frequently  blue.  So  le  Bruyn  tells  usf  the 
mosque  at  Jerusalem,  which  the  Turks  call  the  temple  cff 
Solomon,  is  almost  all  covered  over  with  green  and  blue 
bricks,  which  are  glazed,  bo  that  when  the  sun  shines,  the 
eye  is  perfectly  dazzled.  Some  of  these  bricks  or  tiles, 
my  reader  will  observe,  are  blue,  the  colour  Moses  men- 
tions; but  bricks  and  tiles  are   not  transparent:  to  de* 

•  P.  209.  t  Tom.  ?.  p.  238, 239. 


tit  CONCERNING  THEIU  CITIES,  HOUSES,  &«. 

scribe  then  the  pavement  under  the  feet  of  the  God  of 
Israel  with  due  majestj,  Moses  represents  it  as  like  the 
floors  of  painted  tile  he  had  seen,  but  transparent  however 
as  the  body  of  Heaven.  « jrawRoic 

Had  Moses  known  any  thingi)f  marble  pavements,  it  is 
natural  to  suppose,  he  would  rather  have  compared  what 
was  seen  in  this  August  vision  to  them,  than  to  a  floor  of 
painted  tile,  though  such  an  one  is  not  without  its  beau- 
ty ;*  which  ought  to  be  remarked,  to  prevent  our  receiv- 
ing impressions  of  too  debasing  a  kind  from  Moses's  men- 
tioning brick  work  under  the  feet  of  God  :  our  imagina- 
tions might  otherwise  have  been  led  to  the  poor  pave- 
ments of  brick  in  our  cottages  ;  whereas  Moses  seems,  on 
the  contrary,  to  have  thought  of  the  most  splendid  floors 
Egypt  then  knew. 

Dr.  Shaw,  after  having  said  that  the  floors  in  the  Le- 
vant are  laid  with  painted  tiles,  or  plaster  of  terrace,  in- 
forms us  in  a  note,f  that  a  pavement  like  this  is  men- 
tioned Esther  i,  6,  7.  The  beds  were  of  gold  and  silver, 
npon  a  pavement  of  red  and  blue  and  white  and  black 
marble.  But  this  is  43ot4he  happiest  of  the  Doctor's  illus- 
trations, since  floors  of  different  coloured  marble  are  com- 
mon now  in  the  East  ;J  since  this  of  Ahasuerus  is  gener- 
ally supposed  to  have  been  of  that  kind  ;  since  there  is  a 
great  difference  in  point  of  magnificence  between  a  pave- 
ment of  marble  and  one  of  painted  tiles,  and  consequent- 
ly the  palace  of  so  mighty  a  monarch  as  Ahasuerus  rath- 
er to  be  supposed  to  be  paved  with  marble  ;  and  since 
the  Jewish  historian  is  giving  an  account  of  the  pavement 
of  a  court  yard,  not  of  a  room. 

It  deserves  a  remark,  that  the  Eastern  floors  and  ceil- 
ings are  just  the  reverse  of  ours.  Their  ceilings  are 
of  wood,  ours  of  plaster,  or  stucco  work;  their  floors  are 

•  Thcvciiot  calls  them  pure  tiles,  like  chinn,  p.  26.  part  1.  f  P.  209, 

^  So  Dr.  Russell  tells  us,  they  pave  their  courts  at  Aleppo  with  roarbic, 
and  oftentimes  ^\iili  a  mi.\ture  of  yellow  and  white,  red  and  black,  by  way 
6f  ornament,  p.  48.  j  jiv«d  Uuow  ewe*  niiHiw  bsu  . 


CONCERNING  THEIR  CITIES,  HOUSES,  Sco.  317 

of  plaster  or  of  painted  tiles,  ours  of  wood.*  This  effec- 
tually detects  a  mistake  of  Kimchi  and  R.  Solomon,  who, 
according  to  Buxtorf,f  supposed  the  floor  of  the  porch  of 
judgment  which  Solomon  built  was  all  of  cedar ;  where- 
as the  sacred  writer,  1  Kings  vii.  T,  undoubtedly  meant 
its  covering  a  top,  its  ceiling,  was  of  cedar.  Indeed  here 
in  the  West,  where  these  Jewish  Rabbles  lived,  such 
places  are  usually  built  after  the  Eastern  mode,  which 
makes  their  mistake  so  much  the  more  strange.  West- 
minster hall  is,  I  think,  paved  with  stone  and  ceiled  with 
wood;  and  such  without  doubt  was  the  ceiling  and  the 
pavement  of  the  porch  for  judgment  which  Solomon 
built,  and  which  was  erected  in  a  much  hotter  climate.;}! 

OBSERVATION  XXI. 

-'DIFFERENT    KINDS    OP    HANGINGS     USED    IN    THE     EAST. 
•0 

.^  Dr.  Shaw  refers  to  this  passage  of  Esther,  in  the 
.jBzme  page,  on  another  account,  and,  it  should  seem,  with 
.tlike  success.  He  says,  the  Eastern  chambers,  in  houses 
of  better  fashion,  are  covered  and  adorned,  from  the  mid- 
dle of  the  wall  downward,  with  velvet  or  damask  hang" 
tngSy  of  white,  blue,  red,  green,  or  other  colours,  Esther 
i.  6,  suspended  upon  hooks,  or  taken  down  at  pleasure.^ 

■     *  This  is  not  an  universal  case  ;  for  Dr.  Russell  observes,  MS.  note,  that 
-,  •*  the  floors  at  Aleppo  are  very  oftjen  of  wood."        Edit. 

»  '  t  *^P'»t-  R«d'  Heb.  p.  780. 

i  Dr.  Russell,  in  a  MS.  note,  observes,  "  that  stone  floors  would  be  very 

inconvenient  in    the  East  in  winter,  if  not  covered,  as  in  Palestine  ;  their 

j  shoes  are  not  so  thick  as  those  in  England ;  and  in  ancient  times  they  prob* 

ably  did  not  enter  with  their  shoes  on.    At  Aleppo,  he  says,  the  stone  or 

terrace  floors  are  generally  covered  in  the  winter."        Edit. 

$  "At  Aleppo  AoM^g-jH^s  are  never  employed  except  in  the  winter  on 
some  occasions,  to  cover  the  side  of  a  room  when  the  windows  arc  too 
much  exposed  to  the  cold  winds.  The  hangings  meant  in  Esther,  I 
should  imagine,  were  not  the  hangings  above,  but  atrtains,  ^lividing  the 
court  of  the  garden  into  difl'erent  booths  ;  for  the  guests  entertained  were 
of  all  sorts  i  and  within  doora  would  hare  been  in  separate  rnomi."  Ibid- 
Edit. 


310  CONCERNING  THEIR  CITIES,  HOUSES,  &c 

Here  again  this  ingenious  author  seems  to  have  been 
less  exact,  and  should  rather,  I  imagine,  have  referred  to 
this  passage,  when  he  told  us  that  the  courts  or  quadran- 
gles, of  their  houses,  when  a  large  company  is  to  be  re- 
ceived into  them,  Bre  commonly  sheltered  from  the  heat 
and  inclemency  of  the  weather  by  a  vellum,  umbrella,  or 
veil,  which  being  expanded  upon  ropes  from  one  side  of 
the  parapet  wall  to  the  other,  may  be  folded,  or  unfolded 
at  pleasure. "*  For  though  there  are  some  things  in  that 
passage  of  the  book  of  Esther  that  cannot  be  determined 
without  difficulty,  yet  it  is  extremely  plain  that  the  com- 
pany were  entertained  in  a  court  of  the  palace  of  Ahasue- 
rns,  which  agrees  with  Dr.  Shaw's  account,  that  when 
much  company  are  to  be  admitted  into  an  house,  the 
court  is  the  place  of  their  reception ;  now  though  their 
chambers  are  hung  with  velvet  or  damask  hangings,  it 
does  not  appear  that  on  such  occasions  their  courts  are 
thus  adorned,  but  there  is  a  veil  stretched  out  over  head 
to  shelter  them  from  the  inclemency  of  the  weather. 
And  indeed  to  something  of  this  sort  it  is  commonly  supA* 
posed  these  words  refer,  though  none  has  given  a  better 
illustration  of  this  piece  of  ancient  history  than  Dr.  Shaw 
has  undesignedly  done,  in  this  account  of  their  receiving 
company,  when  the  number  is  large,  in  these  courts,  and'- 
covering  them  with  veils  expanded  on  ropes, 

OBSERVATION  XXII. 

ACCOUNT    OF  BELSHAZZAr's    FEAST,  AND  THE    PLACE  IN^ 
THE  ROYAL  APARTMENTS  WHERE  PROBABLY  HELD.      , 

Answerably  to  this  way  of  treating  a  large  company, 
in  the  court  of  a  building,  we  are  naturally  led  to  suppose 
the  feast  made  by  Belshazzar  to  a  thousand  of  his  lords, 
when  he  drank  wine  before  the  thousand,f  was  held  in  a 
quadrangle  of  itii  palace ;  which  possibly  may  help  to 

*  p.  20*.  t  Dan.  v.  1,  &£/ 


CONCERNING  THEZR  CITIES,  HOUSES,  &•.  gift 

explain  some  passages  of  this  transaction  better  than  has 
hilherta  been  done. 

Sir  J.  Chardin  has  a  note  in  his  MS.  on  this  passage, 
but  these  inemorandunis  have  not  thoroughly  cleared  up 
this  alfitir. 

,,  The  substance  of  them  is  this  :  that  two  things  ought 
^  be  remarked  here,  the  one,  that  our  painters  err,  wheo 
in  painliiig  this  history  they  draw  a  silver,  sconce  with  a 
wax  candle  in  it,  such  as  formerly  were  placed  in  great 
houses,  as  appears  by  the  Septuagint,  who  make  use  of 
a  term  which  signifies  a  lamp,  or  torch;  nor  ordinarilj 
are  candles  made  use  of  in  the  East.  The  other*  that 
by  the  word  candlestick  is  not  to  be  understood  an  uten- 
sil for  the  reception  of  a  candle,  but  of  a  quantity  of  tal- 
low, according  to  the  usages  of  the  East.  Further,  over 
against  the  candlestick,  is  not  to  be  understood  to  mean 
near  the  candlestick,  but  opposite  to  the  candlestick, 
where  its  light  was  principally  directed.  A  sconce  would 
ill  agree  with  the  Oriental  manner  of  sitting  on  the  ground. 
He  ?ifter  these  things  sums  up  all  with  saying.  Three 
things  then  are  to  be  taken  notice  of  here :  First,  in  what 
part  of  the  house  the  writing  appeared;  secondly,  the 
nature  of  the  candlestick ;  and  lastly,  the  place  of  the 
jl^riting  with  respect  to  the  candlestick,  or  range  of  can- 
dlesticks. This  is  the  sum  of  what  this  gentleman  has 
iiemarked  upon  this  head. 

'  Perhaps  the  illustration  may  advance  a  little  nearer 
completeness,  if  we  add  the  following  particulars:  in  the 
first  place,  that  most  probably  this  feast  was  held  in  some 
open  court  of  the  palace.  The  present  customs  of  the 
East  ;*  the  number  of  the  people  at  this  entertainment ; 
and  the  place  where  another  king  of  Persia  held  a  solemn 
feast  ;t  all  concur  to  establish  this  sentiment. 

Secondly,  That  the  candlestick  of  course  may  be  im- 
agined to  be  some  very  large  utensil,  with  one  or  more 
very  large  lamps,  sufficient  to  illuminate  this  area  in  a 

•  See  Sh»ir,  p,  20«.  t  Esther  i.  !?. 


32  0  CONCERNING  THEIR  CITIES,  HOUSES,  8cc. 

splendid  and  royal  manner.*  It  appears  by  the  term 
made  use  of,  that  there  was  but  one  candlestick.  One 
candlestick,  however,  we  know  might  have  several  lamps, 
since  that  made  for  the  tabernacle  of  Moses  had  seven  :f 
Belshazzar's  might  have  more.  When  Mr.  Hanway  was 
treated  in  Persia  one  evening,  by  a  person  of  some  dis- 
tinction, he  tells  U8,J  there  stood  in  the  court  yard  a  large 
lamp,  supplied  with  tallow ;  and  in  the  middle  of  the 
room,  on  the  floor,  was  a  wax  candle  :  if  one  large  tallow 
lamp  sufficed  for  the  court  yard  of  a  person  of  some  dis- 
tinction, a  very  large  candlestick,  with  many  such  lamps, 
might  do  very  well  for  this  court  of  the  palace  of  Bel- 
shazzar.   -^J --i'- >J':*u  .'?4tOi -  •■> 

Thirdly,  Overagainst  the  candlestick  on  the  plaster  of 
the  wall  of  the  King's  palace  may  very  naturally  be  ex- 
plained, of  the  wall  of  that  side  of  the  quadrangle  oppo- 
site to  where  Belshazzar  sat.  This  was  the  proper  place 
for  the  appearance  of  the  writing  to  catch  the  eye  of  the 
King ;  and  the  Chaldee  word  may  extremely  well  be  so 
interpreted.  This  consideration  may  ease  some  difficul- 
ties that  otherwise  would  occur  :  for  if  we  were  to  under- 
stand it  of  a  room  in  the  palace,  where  should  we  suppose 
the  plastering  of  the  wall  was  ?  Their  ceilings  are  now 
wont  to  be  of  wainscot  artfully  painted,  or  thrown  into( ', 
variety  of  pannels,  with  gilded  mouldings  and  scrolls  of 
'i7riting.§  The  lower  half  of  the  side  walls  are  covered 
and  adorned  with  velvet  and  damask  hangings,  according 
to  Dr.  Shaw  ;^  and  the  upper  part  embellished  with  most 
ingenious  devices  in  stucco  and  fretwork,  according  to 

•  Dr.  Russell  observes,  MS,  note,  "  There  does  not  appear  to  be  any  ne* 
cessity  for  this  supposition.  It  might  have  been  one  of  the  large  tall  can- 
dlesticks, such  as  are  now  used,  and  serve  to  hold  a  large  wax  candle  as 
long  as  a  torch.  Why  suppose  the  whole  area  illuminated  by  one  light .'" 
Edit. 

t  Exod.  XXV.  37,  ch.  xxxvii.  23-    See  also  Zech.  iv,  2. 

+  Vol.  i.  p.  223.  §  Shaw's  Travels,  p.  209.    Russell,  p.  8. 

^  But  Dr.  Russell,  MS.  note,  says,  «  This  is  by  no  means  common  in 
Syria."    Edit. 


CONCERNING  THEIR  CITIES,  HOUSES,  &o.  321 

him.  And  at  Aleppo,  according  to  Dr.  Russell's  de- 
scription, and  his  drawings,  with  paunels  of  wainscot,  and 
paintings  or  carvings  of  flowers,  leaves,  and  inscriptions. 
Where  then  shall  we  suppose  the  fatal  writing  appeared? 
where  the  plastering  on  the  wall?  The  enclosing  them- 
selves in  cedar,  the  ceiling  with  precious  wood,  and  the 
painting  in  an  ornamental  way,  were  things  used  before 
the  time  of  Belshazzar,  and  in  the  palaces  of  princes 
whose  dominions  were  by  no  means  equal  to  his  in  extent 
or  riches,  Jer.  xxii.  14,  15.  But  if  we  suppose  the  writing 
on  the  external  surface  of  one  side  of  the  quadrangle,  that 
side  opposite  to  the  candlestick,  and  to  where  the  king 
sat,  it  is  very  easy  to  explain  its  being  on  the  plastering 
of  the  wall.  Babylon  was  not  a  country  for  stone,  bricks 
were  used  there  as  a  succedanenm,  Gen.  xi.  3;  and  Sir 
J.  Chardin  in  his  MSS.  describes  brickwork  as  often 
plastered  over. 

Fourthly,  As  Babylon  was  surprised  on  a  festival  nightj 
it  might  be  that  called  sedeh  or  sedouk,  of  which  d'Herbe- 
lot  gives  us  an  amusing  but  short  description,  which  agrees 
very  well  with  the  preceding  explanation :  in  that  festi- 
val the  Persians  kept  great  fires  during  the  night,  about 
which  they  feasted,  and  danced,  it  being  one  of  the  most 
solemn  which  they  had  :  the  Arabs  call  it  leilat  al  vou- 
coud.^ 

OBSERVATION  XXIII. 

YIXES  PLANTED  EVEN  IN   THE  INSIDE  OF  THEIR  HOUSES. 

These  quadrangles  or  courts  are  paved,  Shaw  says» 
with  marble,  or  such  sort  of  materials  as  will  carry  off 
the  rain.  Russell's  account  of  the  houses  of  Aleppo 
agrees  with  this,  and  upon  this  occasion  it  is,  that  he 
takes  notice  of  their  making  the  pavements  of  their  best 

•  Bihliotheque  Orientalc,  I'Art  Pars.  Tlic  Persians  indeed  were  the 
besiegers;  but  might  not  this  festival  he  conimon  to  tlienx  aud  the  Bulijla* 
nians  ?  or  adopted  by  the  Persians  after  this  cuiiqucst  I 

▼oi,.  I.  41 


82«  CONCERNING  THEIR  CITIES,  HOUSES,  &c. 

buildings  of  a  jellow  tnarble,  which  takes  a  tolerable  pol- 
ish, and  with  which  fhey  often  intermix  a  red,  white,  and 
coarse  black  marble,  by  way  of  ornament.  But  what  I 
would  here  remark  is,  that  there  is  very  commonly  a 
fountain  in  the  middle  of  the  court,  and  a  kind  of  little 
garden  about  it,  which  in  that  climate  must  be  peculiarly 
pleasant.  Whether  this  is  at  all  explanatory  of  king 
Ahasuerus's  making  a  feast  in  the  court  of  the  garden  of 
his  palace,  I  do  not  know;  but  the  mention  both  of  the 
pavement  and  of  the  garden^  leads  us  to  think  of  that  pas- 
sage 

Dr.  Russell  says  too,  that  they  have  sometimes  a  tall 
cypress  tree  planted  in  the  inner  court  of  their  houses; 
but  neither  he,  nor  any  other  traveller,  that  I  recollect, 
speaks  of  the  conducting  vines  along  the  sides  of  their 
houses  ;  that,  however  common  it  may  be  among  us,  does 
not  appear  to  be  an  Eastern  custom,  or  to  make  any  part 
of  the  verdure  with  which  they  set  off  their  courts. 

I  doubt  therefore  a  late  very  ingenious  and  learned,  as 
well  as  a  lively,  writer  was  mistaken,  in  supposing  the  oc- 
casion of  our  Lord's  comparing  himself  to  a  vine  might 
be  his  standing  *'  near  a  window,  or  in  some  court  by  the 
side  of  the  house,  where  the  sight  of  a  vine  might  sug- 
gest this  beautiful  simile  ;"  to  which,  after  referring  to 
Ps.  cxxviii.  3,  he  adds,  "  that  circumstance  was,  no  doubt, 
common  in  Judea,  which  abounded  with  the  finest 
grapes:"*  and  I  am  apprehensive  that  this  is  an  addi- 
tional proof  of  the  necessity  of  attending  to  the  customs 
of  the  East,  when  we  would  explain  the  Scriptures.f 

•  Dodd.  Faro.  Exp.  toI.  ii.  8to.  p.  445,  note  b. 

^  The  whole  of  this  critique  upon  Doddridge  is  set  aside  by  the  follow- 
ing note  from  Dr.  Russell  :  "  It  is  very  common  to  cover  the  stairs  leading 
to  the  upper  apartments  of  the  harem  with  vines.  And  they  have  often  a 
lattice  work  of  wood  raised  agaii  st  (he  dead  walls,  for  a  vine  or  other  shrub 
t')  crawl  upon  "  This  note  1  consider  invaluable,  as  it  fully  explains  the 
beautiful  metaphor  in  Psalm  cxxviii.  with  which  Mr.  Harder  is  so  uanes' 
vssarilf  hampered  in  the  following  page.  Edit. 


CONCERNING  THEIR  CITIES,  HOUSES,  &«.  828 

The  Jewish  nation  would  not  have  adraitted  this  illus- 
tration* had  this  management  been  common  in  other  parts 
of  that  country;  for,  according  to  their  writers,  Jerusalem 
was  distiriguished  from  all  the  other  towns  of  Judea,  as  by 
several  other  peculiarities,  so  in  particular  by  its  having 
no  gardens,  or  any  trees  planted  in  it,  excepting  some  rose- 
bushes, which  it  seems  had  been  from  the  days  of  the  an- 
cient Prophets  ;*  consequently  there  could  be  no  vine,  in 
their  opinion,  about  the  sides  of  the  house  in  which  our 
Lord  was  when  he  spoke  these  words. 

But  the  cxxviiith  Psalm  is  no  proof,  I  apprehend,  that 
it  was  practised  any  where  else  in  that  country,  (hough  it 
has  been  thus  understood  by  other  writers  besides  this 
author;  and,  among  the  rest,  by  no  less  considerable  per- 
sons than  Cocceius,  Hammond,  Patrick,  and  Kimchi  the 
Jewish  rabbi.  For  as  it  is  visible  that  the  good  man's  sons 
being  like  olive  plants  round  about  his  table,  means  not 
that  they  should  be  like  the  ojive  plants  which  grew  round 
his  table,  it  being,  I  presume,  a  thought  in  Bishop  Patrick 
that  will  not  be  defended,  that  the  Psalmist  refers  to  a  ta- 
ble spread  in  an  arbour  composed  of  young  olive  trees, 
for  we  find  no  such  arbours  in  the  Levant,  nor  is  the  tree 
very  proper  for  such  a  purpose;  so  in  like  manner  the 
first  clause  may  signify,  thy  wife  shall  be  in  the  sides,  or 
private  apartments,  of  thy  house,  fruitful  as  a  thriving 
vine:  the  place  here  mentioned,  the  sides  of  the  house, 
referring  to  the  wife,  not  to  the  vine  ;  as  the  other,  the  ta- 
ble, refers  to  the  children,  not  to  the  olives.  Nor  is  this 
^  new  thought,  it  is  a  remark  that  Musculus  and  other  in- 
terpreters have  made.f 

The  Hebrew  word,  TiSV,  yarketee,  translated  sides,  is 
very  well  known  to  signify  the  more  private  apartments 
of  a  house,  as  they  have  also  remarked  ;  and  he  that  reads 
Dr.  Shaw's  description  of  an  Eastern  house,  must  imme- 
diately see  the  propriety  of  calling  the  private  apartments 
its  sides.     Such  a  house  consists  of  a  square  court,  which, 

*  Lightfoflt,  Tol.  ii,  p.  21.  f  Vide  Poli  Syn.  in  lot. 


824  CONCERNING  THEIR  CITIES,  HOUSES,  &o. 

the  Doctor  observes,  is  called  the  midst  of  the  house ;  and 
private  apartments  round  it,  which  may  as  properly  be 
called  its  sides  in  consequence :  into  this  middle  of  the 
house,  or  this  quadrangle,  company,  he  tells  us,  aresome- 
tiuies  received,  rarely  or  never  into  any  of  the  chambers, 
in  which  other  authors  tell  us  their  wives  remain  conceaU 
ed  at  such  times. 

And  from  hence,  it  seems,  places  of  privacy  and  con- 
cealment in  general  came  to  be  called  sides ;  the  more 
obscure  holes  of  the  cave  where  David  and  his  men  were 
hid,  when  Saul  entered  it,  were  called  its  sides,  as  we  find, 
1  Sam.  xxiv.  3;  and  that  country  that  had  been  little 
known  and  visited,  from  whence  a  nation  was  to  come 
against  Jerusalem,  is  called,  in  the  predictions  of  Jeremiah, 
the  sides  of  the  earth  ;  Jer.  vi.  22. 

I  will  only  further  add  under  this  Observation,  that 
David  Kimchi,  the  famous  rabbi,  is  more  unhappy*  than 
our  Christian  commentators  in  his  explanation  of  this 
Psalm  :  for  he  tells  us,  a  wife  is  compared  to  a  vine,  be- 
cause that  alone  of  all  trees  can  be  planted  in  a  house; 
whereas,  according  to  Russell,f  they  are  tall  cypresses 
that  are  usually  planted  in  their  court  yards,  if  they  plant 
any  trees  at  all.  But  Kimchi  was  a  Frenchman  or  a 
Spaniard,  as  were  several  of  their  most  celebrated  doctors, 
whose  writings  therefore,  to  make  a  remark  upon  them 
once  for  all,  are  much  less  useful  for  the  explanation 
of  books  in  which  there  are  perpetual  references  to  East- 
ern customs,  than  otherwise  they  probably  would  have 
been. J 

*  In  eailem  Syn.  f  Vol.  i.  p.  17,  33,  51. 

i  Kiinchi  is  perfectly  correct ;  and  it  is  by  liis  exposition  alone  that  the 
true  sense  of  that  most  elegant  and  expressive  metaphor  can  be  found  out. 
Dr.  Kiissell  has  proved  this  fuily  by  sliowing  that  wVies  are  actually  planted 
?n  the  houses,  and  cover  the  st:urs  leading  to  the  upper  apartments  of  the  ha- 
re m  ;  and  l:e  observes  further,  in  confirniation  of  what  Kimchi  has  said,  i/ie 
fine  alone  of  nil  trees  can  he  pi  anted  in  an  hozise.  "That  this  is  generally 
true,  if  fr'iil-l)ii'.;'I.i~  trees  be  intended,  as  the  vine  is  almost  the  only  fruit 
u'ce  which  is  planted  in  the  houses  ;  pomegranates  are  another."    Nor  dots 


CONCERNING  THEIR  CITIES,  HOUSES,  &c.  325 


OBSERVATION  XXIV. 

OF  THE  ALCOVES  OR  DIVANS  USED  IN  THEIR  BUILDINGS. 

Dr.  Russell  does  not  represent  the  pavement  of  the 
courts  as  all  Mosaic  work,  and  equally  adorned,  but  he 
tells  us,  that  it  is  usually  that  part  that  lies  between  the 
fountain  and  the  arched  alcove  on  the  south  side,  that  is 
thus  beautified,  supposing  that  there  is  but  one  alcove  in  a 
court ;  however,  it  should  seem  in  some  other  parts  of 
the  East  there  are  several  of  these  alcoves  opening  into  the 
court.  Maundrell,  who  calls  them  dtians,  in  his  account 
of  the  houses  of  Damascus,  says  expressly,  that  they  have 
generally  several  on  all  sides  of  the  court,  "  being  placed 
at  such  different  points,  that  at  one  or  other  of  them,  you 
may  always  have  either  the  shade,  or  the  sun,  which  you 
please."* 

Are  not  these  alcoves  or  duans,  of  which,  according  (o 
this,  there  might  be  several  in  the  court  of  the  palace  of 
Ahasuerus,  what  the  sacred  writer  means  by  the  beds 
adorned  with  silver  and  gold  ?  Esth.  i.  6.  I  shall  else- 
where show,  that  the  bed  where  Esther  wak  sitting,  and  on 
which  Hamai)  threw  himself,  Esth.  vii.  8,  must  more  re- 
semble the  modern  Oriental  duans,  or  divans,  than  the 
beds  on  which  the  Romans  reclined  at  their  entertain- 
ments ;  and  consequently  it  is  most  natural  to  understand 
those  beds  of  these  alcoves,  or  duans,  richly  adorned 
with  gold  and  silver,  while  on  the  lower  variegated  pave- 
ment carpets  were  also  laid,  for  the  reception  of  those 

Mr.  Harmer's  criticism  on  the  word  T^^  yarek,  either  convince  or 
satisfy  roe  :  I  know  not  one  place  in  the  Hebrew  Bible  where  it  caij  be  fair- 
ly interpreted  inner  apartment  ;  it  means  simply  a  side,  or  any  thing  that 
may  be  denominated  lateral  length  :  hence  it  signifies  the  thigh  or  thi^h- 
boue  of  a  man,  and  is  used  Exod.  xxv.  31,  for  the  lon^  shaft  or  central 
5/f ?«  of  the  goldea  candlestick.        Edit. 

*  P.  12.). 


326  CONCERNING*  THEIR  CITIES,  HOUSES,  &c. 

that  could  not  find  a  place  in  these  duans  ;  on  which 
pavements  Dr.  Shaw  tells  us,  they  are  wont,  in  Barbary, 
when  much  company  is  to  be  enter  lamed,  to  strew  mats 
and  carpets.* 


OBSERVATION  XXV. 

BIRDS    MAKE    THEIR    NESTS    ON    THE    CAPITALS    OP    PIL- 
LARS   IN    FORSAKEN    TEMPLES,    PALACES,    &C. 

The  prophet  Zephaniah  gives  us  to  understand  three 
things,  by  one  short  passage  in  his  book  of  sacred  pre- 
dictions :  the  1st.  that  the  pillars  of  his  time  were  wont  to 
have  capitals  ;  2d.  that  when  the  buildings  to  which  they 
belonged  were  reduced  to  desolation,  birds  not  unfre- 
quently  took  possession  of  these  capitals;  and  3d.  that 
those  capitals  he  was  acquainted  with  resembled  a  jjome- 
granate. 

The  passage  I  refer  to  is  in  the  2d.  chap,  the  14th. 
verse.  Theflocks  shall  lie  down  in  the  mid.  t  oj  her,  all  the 
beasts  of  the  nations  ;  both  the  cormorant  and  the  bittern 
shall  lodge  in  the  upper  lintels  of  it  ;  or,  according  to  the 
marginal  reading  the  "  knops  or  chapiters." 

The  word  '"in33,  translated  upper  lintels,  and  knops  or 
chapiters,  signifies  pomegranates,  and  shows  what  the 
shape  of  the  capitals  of  pillars  were  with  which  Zephaniah 
was  acquainted.  Some  of  the  very  ancient  Egyptian  and 
Persian  capitals^  that  remain  to  this  time,  are  of  very  odd 
and  fantastic  shapes ;  the  Jewish  style  of  architecture 
seems  to  have  been  of  a  chaster  and  more  simple  nature 
in  this  point.     The  capitals  of  the  two  pillars  in  the  porch 

•  p.  208.  "  The  alcove,  by  way  of  eminence,"  says  Dr.  Russell,  MS. 
note,  "is  called  the  duan,  and  there  is  but  one  such  in  the  courts  at  Alep- 
po, but  there  are  several  moveable  frames,  or  stone  mustabes,  on  which 
duans  are  made  occasionally,  as  well  as  beds."  The  Arabic  word  i,\Wi^ 
dee-ioan,  signifies  a  council,  court,  assembly,  collection,  &c.  and  by  a  me- 
tonymy, theplace  where  such  councilor  court  assembles.  Hence  the  appli* 
cation  of  the  term  to  alcoves,  or  bowers  in  gardens.       Edit. 


CONCERNING  THEIR  CITIES,  HOUSES,  ko  827 

of  the    Temple  were,  probably,  of  the  shape  of  a  pome- 
granate. 

As  to  the  other  circumstances,  birds  lodging  on  the 
capital!^  of  forsaken  temples  and  palaces,  I  would  set  down 
a  remark  of  Sir  John  Chardin  here,  who,  describing  the 
magnificent  pillars  that  he  found  at  Persepolis,  tells  us, 
"The  storks,  birds  respected  by  the  Persians,  make  their 
nests  on  the  top  of  those  columns,  with  great  boldness, 
and  in  no  danger  of  being  dispossessed."* 

What  the  two  Hebrew  words  TNp  and  nap  precisely 
signify,  which  we  translate  the  cormorant  and  the  bittern, 
is  not  agreed  upon  among  the  learned ;  probably  neither 
of  them  means  the  stork,  which  was  found  at  Persepo- 
lis to  have  taken  up  its  abode  in  such  places ;  other  birds 
may  have  a  like  turn;  but  it  must  make  a  reader  smile, 
that  attends  to  the  circumstance  mentioned  by  Zepha- 
niahjf  to  find  the  venerable  Bishops,  of  Queen  Elizabeth's 
time,  translating  the  second  of  these  two  words  otters f  in 
Is.  xiv.  23;  which  they  render  storks  in  Is.  xxxiv  11  > 
and  owls  in  Zepbaniahii.  14.  How  unhappy  that  a  word 
that  occurs  but  three  times  in  the  Hebrew  Bible,  should 
be  translated  by  three  different  words,  and  that  one  of 
them  should  be  otters  I  This  is,  however,  as  plausible  a 
way  of  rendering  this  word,  as  theirs  who  translate  it 
hedgehog. 

This  the  learned  Dr.  Shaw  has  done,J  on  the  account 

of  the  resemblance  between  the  Arabic  word  ^\XiS  ^^n- 

fudh,  which  signifies  hedgehog,   and  the    Hebrew  word 

niap  kcphod,   which  was  what  probably  induced  the  Sep- 

tuagint  to  translate  it  after  this  manner.     Had  the  Doctor 

•  Tome  iii.  p.  108. 

t  Of  taking  up  their  abode  on  the  tops  of  pillars. 

♦  "The  near  analogy  also  hetvixt  kuvfudh,  the  Arabic  name  of  th« 
he(lg«-hog,  which  is  here  very  common,  and  the  Hebrew  -^gp  kephode.  Is. 
xxxiv.  11.  8cc.  should  induce  us  to  take  it  for  that  qnadrupedraccording  tf» 
(h©  i,xx  %-)(j*^7t  lather  lh«n  for  th«  bittern,  as  we  trransinte  it."  P.  \1^- 


32R  CONCERNING  THEIR  CITIES,  HOUSES,  &c. 

recollected  that  Zephaniah  describes  them  as  choosing 
their  abode  on  the  top  of  pillars,  he  might  have  been  of  a 
different  opinion,  as  though  a  likeness  in  a  modern  name 
to  one  of  the  ancient  times  deserves  consideration,  it  is 
not  equally  decisive  with  characters  of  description  derived 
from  natural  history.* 

But  though  it  appears  to  mean  a  bird,  it  does  not  follow 
that  the  Prophet  intended  a  bittern. 

OBSERVATION  XXVI. 

DIFFERENT     CIRCUMSTANCES     IN     THE    RUIN    OP     BABT"- 
LON    AND    NINEVEH. 

Most  people  that  read  the  succeeding  clause  of  that 
passage  of  Zephaniah,  which  I  cited  under  the  last  Ob- 
servation, have  been  ready,  I  apprehend,  to  understand 
the  next  words  as  expressive  of  the  melancholy  interrup- 
tion of  the  silence  that  at  other  times  reigns  in  desolated 
cities,  by  the  doleful  noises  made  by  wild  creatures,  that 
resort  thither ;  Their  voice,  or  rather  a  voice,  shall  sing 
in  the  windows  ;  but  a  passage  in  le  Bruyn's  description 
of  Persepolis  makes  this  doubtful. 

"  I  found  also,"  says  this  traveller,  in  this  place,  "be- 
sides the  birds  I  have  already  mentioned,!  four  or  five 
sorts  of  small  birds,  who  keep  constantly  in  these  ruins 
and  the  adjoining  mountain,  and  who  make  the  most  agree- 
able warbling  in  the  world.  The  singing  of  the  largest 
approaches  very  near  to  that  of  the  nightingale.     Some 

•  To  Mr.  Harmer's  argument  here,  Mr.  Parkhurst  objects  thus :  "  Had 
Mr.  H.  recollected  that  Zephaniah  says  nothing  about  the  top  of  pillars, 
but  that  the  -jgp  lodged  in  the  door  porches,  n'*inSD3  becoptoriah, -v-hich 
we  are  at  liberty  to  suppose  were  thrown  down,  perhaps  he  would  have 
acceded  to  the  Doctor's  opinion."    See  Parkhurst  Lex.  article  -^^n  Edit. 

•J- "Cranes,  storks,  ducks,  and  herons  of  various  sorts;  partridges, 
snipes,  quails,  pigeons,  sparrowhawks,  aud^  abore  all  crows,  with  •which  aU 
Persia  is  filled."    Tome  It.  p.  302. 


CONCERNING  THEIR  CITIES,  HOUSES,  &«.  329 

■of  them  are  almost  all  black ;  olhers  have  the  head  and 
body  spotted,  of  (he  size  of  a  swallow  ;  olhers  are  smaller 
and  of  different  colours,  yellowish,  grey,  and  quite  while, 
shaped  like  a  chaffinch."* 

Babylon  and  Nineveh  were  both  to  be  made  desolate, 
but  their  circumstances  might  be,  and,  according  to  the 
predictions  of  the  Prophets,  actually  were  to  be  very  dif- 
ferent. Babylon  was  never  to  be  inhabited,  no  Arabian 
was  to  pitch  his  tent  there^  nor  shepherds  make  their 
fold  there,  but  wild  beasts  of  the  desert  were  to  lie  there, 
and  their  houses  to  be  filled  with  doleful  creatures.  Is. 
xiii.  20,  21.  But  flocks  were  to  lie  down  in  Nineveh,  and 
the  beasts  of  the  neighbouring  people,  and  the  voice  of 
singing  be  heard  from  the  windowSf  or  holes  of  its  ru- 
inated palaces,  Zepb.  ii.  14. 

These  are  different,  and  in  some  respects,  opposite  de- 
scriptions:  Eastern  flocks  suppose  songs  and  instruments 
of  music  would  be  heard  in  Nineveh;  while  no  shepherd 
should  ever  appear  in  the  ruins  of  Babylon.  In  like  man- 
ner, instead  of  the  dolefid  creatures  of  the  last,  warbling 
of  birds  might  be  intended,  in  Zephaniah's  account  of 
Nineveh,  equally  pleasing  with  what  le  Bruyn  heard  at 
Persepolis.  The  imagination  finds  a  fine  contrast  between 
the  inartificial  songs  and  music  of  shepherds,  mingled 
with  the  wild  notes  of  singing  birds;  and  the  luxurious 
concertsf  of  Nineveh:  as  well  as  between  the  awful  si- 
lence, interrupted  by  the  bowlings  of  doleful  and  savage 
creatures  of  ruinated  Babylon  ;  and  the  melody  of  for- 
mer limes  there.  Though  less  gloomy,  and  overwhelming 
to  the  mind,  would  the  ruins  of  Nineveh  in  that  case  ap- 
pear to  a  traveller,  than  those  of  Babylon. 

•  P.  3C0. 

t  In  both  Nincveli  and  Babylon,  without  «loubt,  %s  well  as  in  Jerusalem, 
(he  harp  and  the  viol,  the  tal)ret  and  the  pipe,  and  wine,  were  in  their 
frequent  feasts;  but  they  regarded  not  the  work  of  the  Lobd,  nor  the 
eperation  of  his  hands,  Is.  v.  12. 

VOL.  I.  42 


330  CONCERNING  THEIR  CITIES.  HOUSES,  «tc. 


OBSERVATION  XXVII.  ' 

USES    TO    WHICH    ANCIENT     RUINS     ARE    CONVERTED    IN 
THE    EAST. 

The  Scriptures,  in  describing  the  ruined  state  into 
which  some  celebrated  cities  were  to  be  reduced,  repre- 
sent them,  not  unfrequently,*  as  to  be  so  desolated,  that 
no  shepherds  with  flocks  should  haunt  them,  which  sup- 
poses they  were  to  be  found  on  the  remains  of  others. 

This  is  a  proper  representation  of  complete  destruction. 
For,  in  the  East,  it  is  common  for  shepherds  to  make  use 
of  remaining  ruins,  to  shelter  their  flocks  from  the  heat 
of  the  middle  of  the  day,  and  from  the  dangers  of  the  night. 
So  Dr.  Chandler,  after  mentioning  the  exquisite  remains 
of  a  temple  of  Apollo,  in  Asia  Minor,  which  were  such  as 
that  it  was  impossible  perhaps  to  conceive  greater  beauty 
and  majesty  of  ruin,  goes  on,f  "  At  evening  a  large  flock 
of  goats,  returning  to  the  fold,  their  bells  tinkling,  spread 
over  the  heap,  climbing  to  browse  on  the  shrubs  and  trees 
growing  between  the  huge  stones." 

Another  passage  of  the  same  writer  shows,  that  they 
make  use  of  ruins  also  to  guard  their  flocks  from  the  noon- 
tide heat.  Speaking  of  Aiasaluck,  generally  understood 
to  be  the  ancient  Ephesus,  and  certainly  near  the  site  of 
that  old  city,  and  at  least  its  successor,  he  says,J  "  A 
herd  of  goats  was  driven  to  it  for  shelter  from  the  sun  at 
noon  ;  and  a  noisy  flight  of  crows  from  the  quarries  seem- 
ed to  insult  its  silence.  We  heard  the  partridge  call  in 
the  area  of  the  theatre  and  of  the  stadium.  The  glorious 
pomp  of  its  heathen  worship  is  no  longer  remembered  : 
and  Christianity,  which  was  there  nursed  by  apostles, 
and  fosicred  by  general  councils,  until  it  increased  to  ful- 
ness of  slature,  barely  lingers  on  in  an  existence  hardly 
visible." 

•  See  Is.  xiii.  20,  Jer.  xlix.  18,  &c.  f  Travels,  p.  151. 

■i  P.  130,  151. 


CONCERNING  THEIR  CITIES,  HOUSES,  &c.  §31 

This  description  is  very  gloomy  and  melancholy  ;  hovr* 
ever,  the  usefulness  of  these  ruins  is  such,  for  the  habi 
tation  of  those  that  tend  flocks,  that  it  often  prevents  a 
place  being  quite  desolate,  and  continues  it  among  in^ 
habited  places,  though  miserably  ruinated.  Such  is  the 
state  of  Ephesus  :  it  is  described  by  Chandler,  as  making 
a  very  gloomy  and  melancholy  appearance,  but  as  not 
absolutely  without  people.  "  Our  horses,"  says  he,* 
"  were  disposed  among  the  walls  and  rubbish,  with  their 
saddles  on  ;  and  a  mat  was  spread  for  us  on  the  ground. 
We  sate  here,  in  the  open  air,  while  supper  was  prepar- 
ing ;  when  suddenly,  fires  began  to  blaze  up  among  the 
bushes,  and  we  saw  the  villagers  collected  about  them  in 
savage  groups,  or  passing  to  and  fro  with  lighted  brands 
for  torches.  The  flames,  with  the  stars  and  a  pale  moon, 
afforded  us  a  dim  prospect  of  ruin  and  desolation. f  A 
shrill  owl,  called  Cucuvaia  from  its  note,  with  a  night* 
hawk,  flitted  near  us ;  and  a  jackal  cried  mournfully,  as 
if  forsaken  by  his  companions,  on  the  mountain.'-' J 

*P.  115. 

f  This  description  may  be  placed  after  Zeph.  ii.  7,  as  a  most  lively 
comment  on  that  passage  of  the  prophet,  ^Jnd  the  coast  shall  be  for  ths 
remnant  of  the  house  of  Judah,  they  shall  feed  thereupon,  in  the  houses  of 
Jlthkelon  shall  they  lie  do-wn  in  the  evening-  ,•  for  the  Lord  their  God  shall 
visit  them,  and  turn  a-way  their  captivity.  But  the  account  that  follows 
there,  of  the  animals  they  found  in  those  ruins,  the  CucuTaian  owl,  the 
nighthawk,  and  the  jackal,  may  not  with  precision  answer  the  Hebrew 
words  of  the  14th  verse,  translated  the  cormorant  and  the  bittern  in  our 
version,  and  that  translated  by  the  Bishop  of  Waterford  llie  raven,  instead 
of  desolation. 

4  Utter  desolation  and  ruin  in  the  palaces  of  the  great,  together  with 
the  vanity  and  transitory  nature  of  worldly  grandeur  and  eminence,  were 
never  more  forcibly  depicted  than  in  the  following  inimitable  couplet  of  the 
Persian  poet,  Sidy. 

< >Lyj«Trir   tXxxi  yi   iXlX*^/  CLs^y^  C^J^ 

"The  Spider  holds  the  vail,  acts  as  chamberlain,  in  the  palace  of  Cesar  ; 
"  The  Ovil  relieves  guard,   or  stands  centinci,  on  the  watch  towers  of 

\fra»iab." 
What  a  lesson  of   Moderation   and  humility  to  tlie  conquerors  of  king- 

'Joins,  and  the  troublers  of  the  qniet  of  th«  universe,  would  they  lay  it  v> 


832,  CONCERNING  THEIR  CITIES,  HOUSES,  &o. 

Those  places  spoken  of  by  the  Prophets  might  have 
been  inhabited,  though  terribly  ruinated,  as  Aiasahick  ia 
now  by  a  few  poor  shepherds,  and  the  ruins  might  have 
afforded  the  poor  people  there  a  miserable  habitation; 
but  the  spirit  of  prophecy  speaks  of  the  destruction  of 
some  cities  as  more  thoroughly  complete:  even  shep- 
herds were  not  to  make  use  of  their  ruiiis>  hut  entire  des- 
olation take  place. 

And  though  wild  Arabs,  as  well  as  other  shepherds, 
might  sometimes  find  a  comfortable  retreat  under  the  ru- 
ins, yet  at  other  times  they  might  want  a  tent,  for  Dr. 
Chandler  slept,  it  seems,  in  the  open  air,  which  shows  a 
want  of  such  arched  remains  as  might  have  sheltered  him 
in  the  ruins  of  Ephesus.  Not  to  say  that  the  Arabs, 
who  commonly  live  in  tents,  might  choose  oftentimes  to 
erect  them,  when  they  might  in  a  different  manner  have 
covered  themselves  from  the  injuries  of  the  night  air. 
This  will  account  for  what  is  said.  Is.  xiii.  20,  It  shall 
never  be  inhabited,  neither  shall  it  be  dwelt  in  from  gen- 
eration to  generation:  neither  shall  the  Arabian  pitch 
tent  there,  neither  shall  the  shepherds  make  their  fold 
there, 

OBSERVATION  XXVIII. 

OF  THEIR  GROTTOES  AXD  CAVES. 

A  GROTTO  or  cave  must  be  imagined  to  be  to  them 
that  live  in  tents  the  most  convenient  stable  they  could 
have  ;  nor  would  it  be  a  despicable  advantage  to  them 
that  live  in  more  fixed  habitations:  there  is  nothing  then 
improbable  in  the  tradition,  that  our  Lord,  who  was  con- 
heart  :  but  vain  is  all  such  moralizing,  seeing  "  Advice  is  only  made  for 
those  ■who  choose  to  take  it."  Afrasiab  was  an  ancient  king,  who  invaded 
and  conquered  Persia  about  700  years  before  the  Christian  era.  After 
having  reigned  twelve  years,  he  was  defeated  and  slain  by  Zatzar  and  his 
son,  the  famous  Rustam,  hero  of  the  Shah  Nameh.  The  present  royal 
fsmily  of  Constantinople  claim  descent  from  this  ancient  monarch.  Edit- 


CONCERNING  THEIR  CITIES,  HOUSES,  &c.  333 

fessedly  born  in  a  stable,  was  born  in  a  grotto  in  or  very 
near  the  city  of  Bethlehem.  «j*  ?  v, 

The  celebrated  Reland,  in  his  acconnt  of  Belhlebem,* 
takes  notice  of  a  remark  of  Mr.  Maundrell,t  that  many  of 
the  sacred  places,  which  are  shown  to  pilgrims  in  the 
Holy  Land,  are  subterraneous,  so  that  almost  all  the  facts 
that  are  recorded  in  the  sacred  history  must  have  happen- 
ed in  grottoes.  Among  others,  a  grotto  is  shown  as  the 
place  of  our  Lord's  nativity  in  Bethlehem.  With  re- 
spect to  this,  Reland  takes  some  pains  to  show,  that  this 
was  supposed  before  the  era  at  which  Maundrell  imagin- 
ed that  great  veneration  for  grottoes  took  place,  which 
was  after  the  time  that  hermits  were  wont  to  choose  them 
for  their  dwelling  places,  who  became  so  highly  e«teemed 
in  the  church.  He  shows  in  particular,  that  Origen,  who 
lived  a  considerable  time  before  these  hermits,  yet 
writing  against  Celsus  remarked,  that  the  cave  in  which 
our  Lord  was  born  was  shown  in  his  lime.  This  he  men- 
tions, that  it  might  not  be  thought  to  be  an  invention  of 
aflertimes. 

Maundrell  certainly  made  such  a  remark,  upon  occasion 
of  his  visiting  Mount  Tabor.  This  perpetual  pointing  out 
grottoes,  he  thought,  in  some  cases,  very  improbable,  the 
condition  and  the  circumstances  of  the  actions  themselves 
seeming  to  require  places  of  another  nature.  Among  these 
he  mentions  the  places  of  the  Baptist's  and  our  Lord's 
nativity,  and  where  St.  Anne  was  delivered  of  the  blessed 
Virgin  ;  but  whether  all  these  were  among  the  things  that, 
according  to  his  >iews,  could  not  probably  have  happen- 
ed in  subterraneous  places,  is  not  certain ;  and  if  he 
thought,  as  to  two  of  them,  it  was  improbable,  it  does  not 
follow  he  thought  so  as  to  the  place  of  our  Lord's  birth. 
The  truth  seems  to  be,  (hat  he  was  struck  with  the  improb- 
ability of  some  of  these  traditions,  and  then  mentioning 
particulars,  as   to  things  said   to  happen  in  caves  of  the 

*  PalKstina,  p.  648  t  See  his  Journey,  p.  lU,  cH.  5. 


334  CONCERNING  THEIR  CtTlES,  HOUSES,  &o. 

earth,  he  did  not  stop  nicely  to  weigh  the  probabih'ty  or 
improbabilify  of  every  thing  he  mentioned. 

As  to  the  place  in  which  our  Lord  was  born,  it  was 
supposed  to  have  been  in  a  cave  in  the  lime  of  Origen, 
long  before  the  hermits  obtained  such  veneration;  to 
which  I  would  add,  that  his  being  born  in  a  stable,  makes 
the  supposition  very  natural. 

For  natural  or  artiGcial  grottoes  are  very  common  in 
the  Eastern  countries,  particularly  in  Judea,  and  are  often 
used  for  their  cattle.  So  Dr.  Pococke  observes,  that 
"there  were  three  uses  for  grottoes 7  for  they  served  ei- 
ther for  sepulchres,  cisterns,  or  as  retreats  for  herdsmen 
and  their  cattle  in  bad  weather,  and  especially  in  the  win- 
ter nights  ;  this  may  account  for  the  great  number  of  grot- 
toes all  over  the  Holy  Land,  in  which)  at  this  time,  many 
families  live  in  winter,  and  drive  their  cattle  into  them  by 
night,  as  a  fence  both  against  the  weather  and  wild  beasts."^ 


OBSERVATION  XXIX. 

OF  THE  LIGHTS  USED  IN  THE  EAST  AND  THEIR  METHOB 
OF  ILLUMINATING    THEIR   HOUSES. 

The  houses  of  Egypt  at  this  time  are  never  without 
lights.  Maillet  assures  us^f  they  burn  lamps,  not  only  all 
the  night  long,  but  in  all  inhabited  apartments  of  an  house  ; 
that  the  poorest  people  would  rather  retrench  part  of  their 
food  than  neglect  it. 

If  we  may  suppose  Maillet's  account  of  the  modern  use 
of  lamps  in  Egypt,  is  not  only  a  true  representation  of  what 
obtained  anciently  there,  but  of  what  was  practised  in 
the  neighbouring  countries  of  Arabia  and  Judea,  it  wHl 
serve  to  set  several  passages  of  Scripture  in  a  light  in 
which  I  never  saw  them  placed. 

•  Trav.  ittto  the  East,  vol.  ij.  p.  48.  t  Let.  9.  p.  10,  U 


CONCERNING  THEIR  CITIES,  HOUSES,  &o.  335 

Jeremiah*  makes  the  taking  awaj  the  light  of  the  can- 
dle and  a  total  desolation  the  same  thing.  According  to 
our  notions,  however,  England  did  not  appear  to  be  an  un- 
inhabited country  every  night  in  the  time  of  William  the 
Conqueror,  though  after  the  curfew  bellf  rang  at  eight 
o'clock,  there  was  no  light  to  be  seen  in  any  of  its  houses ; 
but  if  the  present  Egyptian  custom  obtained  anciently  in 
Judea,  it  is  no  wonder  that  the  Prophet  makes  this  a  mark 
of  desolation.  And,  indeed,  he  has  spoken  of  it  in  such  & 
manner  as  hardly  to  allow  us  to  doubt,  upon  reading  this 
account  of  modern  Egypt,  but  that  something  of  the  same 
sort  was  formerly  practised  in  Judea. 

Job  describes  the  destruction  of  a  family  among  the 
Arabs,  and  the  rendering  one  of  their  habitations  desolale, 
after  the  same  manner,  How  oft  is  the  candle  of  the  wicked 
put  out,  and  how  oft  cometh  their  destruction  upon  them  ? 
Job  xxi.  ir.  Bildad  makes  use  of  the  same  thoiighf,  ch. 
xviii.  5,6.  No  light,  indeed,  according  to  d'Aivieux, J 
was  to  be  seen  in  the  camp  of  the  Arabs  that  he  \ibiled  j 
but  itis  to  be  remembered,  that  Job  and  his  fiiends  were 
not  Bedouins,  and  that  there  is  a  particular  reason  why 
these  Arabs  choose  to  have  no  light  seen  in  their  camps, 
the  apprehension  that  these  might  betray  them  to  their 
enemies. 

On  the  other  hand,  when  God  promises  to  give  David 
a  lamp  always  in  Jerusalem,  which  promise  is  frequently 
to  be  met  with,  if  you  place  it  in  this  point  of  view,  it 
amounts  to  this,  that  the  house  of  David  should  never 

•  Cti.  XXV.  10,  11. 

f  Curfew,  or  cnrfu,  a  corruption  of  the  French  couvre/en,  or  couvvez 
lefeu,  cxting«ii!>h  or  cover  the  fire.  A  wanton  act  of  tyranny  exercised  by 
William  duke  of  Normandy  over  the  inhabitants  of  England,  whom  he  had 
conquered  and  degraded.  A  bell  was  ordered  to  be  rung  in  all  cities  and 
towns  throughout  the  nation,  precisely  at  eight  o'clock  in  the  evening,  at 
the  sound  of  which  the  people  were  obliged  universally  io  extinguish  tlfiv 
^I'M  on  pain  of  death.        Edit. 

i  Voy,  dans  \y  Pal.  p.  180. 


a36  CONCERNING  THEIR  CITIES,  HOUSES,  ko. 

become  desolate,  but  some  of  his  poslerity  should  always 
be  residing  in  his  rojal  seat  as  kings  in  Jerusalem. 

The  oil  that  is  commonly  used  in  Egypt,  Maiilet  tells 
us  in  the  same  place,  is  not  oil  of  olives,  though  that  is  not 
very  scarce  there,  but  the  juice  of  a  certain  root  which 
grows  in  the  marshes  of  that  country,  called  cirika,  which 
looks  a  good  deal  like  wild  succory.  The  oil  that  is  ob- 
tained from  this  plant,  he  observes,  is  of  a  very  disagreea- 
ble smell,  and  the  light  it  produces  not  so  beautiful 
as  that  of  olive  oil ;  for  this  reason,  people  of  condi- 
tion, and  those  who  withoiit  being  so  would  distinguish 
themselves,  burn  only  this  last,  which  is  not  very  expen- 
sive. 

The  cirika,  Maiilet  apprehends,  is  peculiar  to  Egypt ; 
however,  there  are  other  plants  which  produce  oil  for 
burning  in  diflferent  Eastern  countries  :^  the  oil  of  the  ri- 
cinus  in  particular,  Dr.  Russell  informs  us,  serves  for  the 
lamps  of  the  common  people  of  Aleppo.f 

If  there  was  some  difTerence  anciently,  as  there  is  now 
in  Egypt,  between  the  lamps  of  the  poor  and  the  prosper- 
ous, as  to  the  brightness  and  agreeableness  of  the  scent  of 
the  several  kinds  of  oil  that  they  burnt,  it  is  not  impossible 
that  Solomon  might  refer  to  that  circumstance  in  these 
words,  The  light  of  the  righteous  rejoiceth,  he  uses  the 
brightest  burning  and  most  agreeably  scented  kind  of  oil, 
he  prospers,  but  the  lamp  of  the  wicked  shall  be  put  out, 
he  shall  not  only  be  poor,  but  be  destroyed,  and  his  house 
become  desolate.  It  may,  however,  very  possibly  refer 
to  the  great  number  of  lights  that  the  righteous  burnt, 
which  might  be  as  numerous  almost  as  those  of  an  illumi- 
nation in  a  time  of  public  rejoicing,  the  families  of  the 
wealthy  in  those  countries  being  extremely  numerous, 
and  according  to  Maiilet,  every  inhabited  apartment 
has  a  light  burning  in  it  j  whereas  the  wicked  shall  sink 

•  What  is  here  called  cirika  is  pi'operly  the  Seerij,  and  is  extracted  from 
f he  Sesamum.    Edit. 

t  Vol.  i.  p.  79,  80; 


CONCERNING  THEIR  CITIES,  HOUSES,  k:  33f 

in  his  circumstances,  and  have  hardlj  a  servant  to  attend 
him,  yea  shall  absolutely  perish,  and  his  house  become 
desolate. 

And  now  I  have  had  occasion  to  mention  this,  it  may 
be  thought  a  subject  of  inquiry  somewhat  curious,  how  the 
people  of  the  Levant  illuminate  their  houses,  seeing  they 
have  few  or  no  windows  that  open  into  their  apartments.* 
But  Thevenot  has  explained  this,  who  saw  a  public  re- 
joicing at  Cairo  for  the  taking  two  castles  in  Hungary  ;f 
and  another  at  Aleppo,  for  the  birth  of  the  Grand  Seig- 
nior's eldest  son  jj  by  these  it  appears,  that  they  illumi- 
nate their  houses  by  placing  great  numbers  of  lamps  in 
and  before  the  gates  of  the  houses. 

After  the  same  manner  the  Jews  solemnized  the  feast  of 
Dedication,  of  which  we  read  John  x.  22,  and  which  from 
this  circumstance,  it  has  been  supposed  was  called  (^colotf 
or  lights,  according  to  Maimonides  :  for  he  says,  "  it  wass 
celebrated  by  the  burning  a  great  numb»r  of  lights  that 
night  at  the  doors  of  their  houses."^  Maimonides  lived  in 
Egypt,  and  he  speaks  according  to  the  practice  of  that 
country  certainly ;  and  most  probably  truly  represents 
the  Jewish  way  of  illuminating. 

OBSERVATION  XXX. 

OF.   THE    WALLS    ROUND    THEIR    DWELLINGS. 

If  they  raised  up  anciently  the  walls  of  their  cities  so 
high  as  not  to  be  liable  to  be  scaled,  they  thought  them 
safe. 

•  Shaw,  p.  207.  j  Part  ii.  p.  35,  36.  4  Part  i.  p.  241 ,  242. 

$  See  Lightfoot's  Temple  service.  "  This,  says  Dr.  Russell,  MS.  note, 
js  done  on  the  birth  of  a  prince,  Rtc.  and  is  called  zeentf,  or  rather  the  illu- 
niination  is  a  part  of  the  zeeny."  The  Arabic  word  <X^fj  or  J^xli  zee- 
veh,  or  zemeU  signifies  an  ornament,  decoration,  dress ;  and  is  lience  appli- 
ed also  to  a  rejoicing  or  gala  day,  a  festival.    &aJJjJ    »^  i.e.  the  time  of 

ornamenting,  dressing,  feasting,  &c.  Query,  docs  not  our  word  zany,  a 
merry  extravagant  fellovi,  come  from  this  Arabic  term  ?  See  an  account 
of  the  revelry  and  extravagance  practised  .nt  tlie  zeetiafi,  Obscrv.  xxxvi.  in 
this  Chap.        Edit. 

TOL.    1.  42 


338  CONCERNING  THEIR  CITIES,  HOUSES,  kxt. 

The  same  simple  contrivance  is  to  this  day  sufficient  t^ 
guard  places  from  the  Arabs,  who  live  in  that  very  wilder- 
nes's  in  which  Israel  wandered,  when  the  spies  discour- 
aged the  hearts  of  the  people^by  saying,  The  cities  are 
great,  and  walled  up  to  heaven,  Deut.  i.  28,  and  who  are 
a  nation  more  inured  to  warlike  enterprises  than  the  Is- 
raelites were.  . .ii:.--^>i*- /v^tn:----!-^!  ^h 'I  i-^^HJ 

To  say  the  height  of  the  walls,  which  by  a  strong  Eaa* 
tern  way  of  speaking  are  said  to  reach  up  to  heaven, "must 
be  supposed  to  have  given  pain  to  the  people  Moses  was 
conducting  out  of  Egypt,  who  were  by  no  means  qualified 
to  surmount  this  difficulty,  though  among  us  it  would  be 
very  easily  overcome,  would  be  a  just,  but  a  cold  and 
formal  comment  on  these  words,  if  compared  with  the  live- 
liness and  satisfaction  the  mind  would  receive,  from  the 
setting  down  what  modern  travellers  have  said  about  the 
present  inhabitants  of  these  deserts,  who  must  be  suppos- 
ed to  be  as  able  to  overcome  any  obstruction  of  this  kind, 
,as  Israel,  when  that  nation  came  out  of  Egypt ;  and  who 
are  by  this  means  oftentimes  prevented  from  working  their 
will  on  the  inhabitants  of  these  walled  places :  I  shall 
therefore  here  set  down  two  or  three  passages  of  this  kind, 
as  an  amusing  explanation  of  the  force  of  this  complaint 
of  the  spies. 

The  great  monastery  at  Mount  Sinai,  Thevenot*  says» 
"is  well  built,  of  good  free  stone,  with  very  high  smooth 
walls  ;  on  the  East  side  there  is  a  window,  by  which  those 
that  were  within  drew  up  pilgrims  into  the  monastery, 
with  a  basket  which  they  let  down  by  a  rope  that  runs  in  a 
pulley,  to  be  seen  above  at  the  window,  and  th^  pilgrims 
went  into  it  one  after  another,  and  so  were  hoisted  up,"  &.c. 
These  walls,  he  observes  in  the  next  chapter,  are  "so 
high  that  they  cannot  be  scaled,  and  without  cannon  that 
place  cannot  be  taken." 

"  The  monastery  of  St.  Anthonyf  is  inhabited  as  I  have 
been  saying,  by  religious  of  the  Coptic  nation,  to  whom 

*  Part  i.  p.  169,  iro.  f  In  Egjpt- 


CONCERNING  THEIR  CITIES,  HOUSES,  &c.  339 

provisions  are  sent  from  time  to  lime.  It  is  a  vast  enclo- 
sure with  good  walls,  raised  so  hieh  as  to  secure  this  place 
from  the  insults  of  the  Arabs.  There  is  no  entrance  into 
it  but  by  a  pulley,  by  means  of  which  people  are  hoisted 
up  on  high  and  so  conveyed  into  the  monastery."*  By 
means  of  these  walls  these  places  are  impregnable  to  the 
Arabs  ;  the  Israelites  thought  (he  cities  of  Canaan  must  be 
impregnable  to  them,  for  Ihey  forgot  the  divine  power  of 
their  leader. 

OBSERVATION  XXXT. 

METHOD  OF  SECURING  THEIR  GATES,  LOCKS,  KEYS, 
BARS,  &C. 

Vain  however  would  have  been  the  precaution  of  rais- 
ing their  walls  to  a  great  height,  if  their  gates  had  not 
been  well  secured.  It  cannot  however  be  imagined,  that 
their  gates  were  in  common  walled  up  upon  the  approach 
of  danger,  as  the  gate  of  the  convent  of  Mount  Sinai  is 
constantly  kept,  never  being  opened,  excepting  at  the  re- 
ception of  a  new  archbishop  ;  and  that  there  was  no  en- 
trance at  such  times  into  their  stroag  ciliesbut  bypullies: 
there  were  other  methods  by  which  they  might,  and  un- 
doubtedly did,  secure  them.  One  of  them  is,  the  plating 
them  over  with  thick  iron.  This  they  probably  prac- 
tised anciently,  it  is  certain  it  now  obtains  in  those 
countries ;  so  Pitts  tells  us,  that  Algiers  has  five  gates, 
and  some  of  these  have  two,  some  three  other  gates  within 
them,  and  some  of  them  plated  all  over  with  thick  iron, 
being  made  strong  and  convenient  for  what  it  is,  a  nest  of 
pirate s.f 

After  this  manner,  the  place  where  St.  Peter  was  im- 
prisoned seems  to  have  been  secured.  IFhen  they  werf 
past  the  first  and  second  ward,  they  came  unto  the  iron 
gate  that  leadeth  unto  the  city,  which  opened  to  them  of 

'  Maillet,  Let.  8   p.  821.  v  P   !• 


340  CONCERNING  THEIR  CITIES,  HOUSES,  &«. 

its  own  accord.  Acts  xii.  10.  So  Dr.  Pococke,  speaking 
of  a  bridge  not  far  from  Antioch,  called  the  Iron  bridge, 
says,*  "  there  are  two  towers  belonging  to  it,  the  gates  of 
which  are  covered  with  iron  plates,  which  he  supposes  is 
the  reason  why  it  is  called  the  iron  bridge." 

Some  of  their  gates  are  plated  over  in  like  manner  with 
bdrass,  such  are  the  vastly  large  gates  of  the  church  of 
St.  John  Baptist  at  Damascus,  now  converted  into  a 
mosque.f 

The  curious  have  remarked,  that  if  their  gates  are  some- 
times of  iron  and  brass,  their  locks  and  keys  are  often  of 
wood  ;  and  that  not  only  of  their  houses,  but  sometimes 
of  Jheir  cities  too.  Russell,  1  think,  makes  this  remark 
on  the  houses  of  Aleppo,  as  Rauwolffdid  long  before  him. 
As  to  those  of  their  cities,  Thevenot,  speaking  of  Grand 
Cairo,J  says,  "  All  their  locks  and  keys  are  of  wood,  and 
they  have  none  of  iron,  no  not  for  their  city  gates,  which 
may  be  all  easily  opened  without  a  key.  The  keys  are 
bits  of  timber,  with  little  pieces  of  wire  that  lift  up  other 
pieces  of  wire  which  are  in  the  lock,  and  enter  into  certain 
little  holes,  out  of  which  the  ends  of  wire  that  are  in  the 
key  having  thrust  them,  the  gate  is  open.  But  without 
the  key,  a  little  soft  paste  upon  the  end  of  one's  finger 
will  do  the  job  as  well."  Rauwolff^  does  not  speak  of  the 
locks  and  keys  of  wood  in  those  terms  of  universality  that 
Thevenot  makes  use  of;  he  only  says,  their  doors  and 
houses  are  generally  shut  with  wooden  bolts,  and  that  they 
unlock  them  with  wooden  keys.  Probably  it  was  so  an- 
ciently, and  that  in  contradiction  to  them  we  read  of  cities 
with  walls  and  brasen  bars,  1  Kings  iv.  13,  and  of  break- 
ing in  pieces  gates  of  brass  and  bars  of  iron,  Isai.  xlv. 
2.  And  according  to  this,  there  may  be  something  more 
in  the  eaipiiasis  of  the  following  passage  than  has  been  re- 
marked :  A  brother  ojfended  is  harder  to  be  won  than  a 

•  Vol.  ii.  i»an  i.  p.  IT2.  f  Mauadrell,  ji.  12C. 

^  Parti.  i>.  113.  §P.  2J,  C'i. 


CONCERNING  THEIR  CITIES,  HOUSES,  &o.  34I 

strong  city :  and  their  contentions  are  like  the  bars  of 
a  castle;  not  merely  hard  to  be  removed  on  account 
of  their  size,  but  on  account  of  the  materials  of  which 
they  vrere  made,  as  not  being  of  wood,  but  of  iron  or  brass.* 

What  Thevenot  observes,  of  the  ease  with  which  their 
locks  are  often  opened  without  a  key,  puts  one  in  mind  of 
those  .vords,  Cant.  v.  4,  3Iy  beloved  put  in  his  hand  by 
the  hole,  and  my  bowels  were  moved  for  him.  He  at- 
tempted, that  is,  apparently,  to  open  the  door  by  putting 
in  his  finger  at  {he  keyhole,  according  to  some  such  meth- 
od as  that  described  by  Thevenot ;  he  attempted,  but  it 
did  not  open,  my  heart  then  was  greatly  moved.  But 
what  a  strange  explanation  does  Bishop  Patrick  give  of 
these  words,  "  He  put  in  his  hand  by  the  hole,  i.e.  at  the 
window,  or  casement ;  as  if  he  would  draw  her  out  of  bed  :" 
&c.  How  unacquainted  was  this  good  Prelate  with  some 
of  the  customs  of  the  Levant,  or  at  least  how  inattentive 
to  (hem  in  this  place,  not  to  say  how  indelicate!  Their 
houses  have  few  or  no  windows  on  the  outside,  and  espec- 
ially in  the  lower  story,  so  that  what  he  supposes  could 
be  no  circumstance  in  an  Eastern  poem  ;  but  if  the  Jewish 
houses  had  been  quite  different  from  those  that  are  now 
built  in  those  countries,  the  sacred  lover  would  never 
have  been  represented  after  this  manner.  What  makes 
it  the  more  strange  is,  that  several  commentators,  who 
perhaps  were  as  much  unacquainted  with  the  nature 
of  the  Eastern  buildings  as  this  writer,  yet  have  thought 
the  words  must  signify  attempting  to  unlock  the  door.f 

The  handles   of  the  lock,   spoken  of  in  the  next  verse, 
are  I  suppose,  to  be  understood  of  these  wires  j  the  word 

*  **  The  gates,  besides  these  locks,  says  Dr.  Russell,  MS.  note,  Iiave 
large  ■wooden  bars,  which  draw  out  from  the  wall  on  each  side."  These 
•wooden  locks,  therefore,  are  not  intended  for  defence,  but  merely  to  serve 
as  latches  to  shut  the  doors  in  times  of  peace  and  security.  The  larq-e 
■wooden  bars  mentioned  by  Dr.  Uussell,  served  for  defence.  The  wooden 
locks,  he  says,  are  now  generally  disused,  e.xccpt  in  the  Bazars,  Klianci', 
and  Stables.    Vol.  i.  p.  21,  22.       Edit. 

t  Piscastor,  Mercer,  Sanctius,  aliique,  ap.  Poll  Syn. 


342  CONCERNING  THEIU  CITIES,  HOUSES,  Stc. 

signifying,  in  some  other  places,  branches,  which  these 
wires  resemble.  To  suppose  the  myrrh  was  used  for  the 
same  purpose  as  the  soft  paste  Thevenot  speaks  of,  Ihough 
ineffectually,  would  be  probably  thought  an  excessive 
refinement;  it  is  sufficient  to  observe,  that  he  says  in  the 
first  verse,  he  had  gathered  myrrh  with  other  spices,  and 
attempting  therefore  to  open  the  door  with  a  hand  be- 
smeared with  this  precious  gum,  the  spouse,  when  she 
went  to  unlock  the  door,  found  that  her  fingers  gathered 
it  up  from  the  handles  of  the  lock,  and  this  the  strong  lan- 
guage of  poetry  might  very  well  express  by,  My  hand 
dropped  myrrh,  my  fingers  sweel-smelling  myrrh, 

OBSERVATION  XXXII. 
> 

WATCHMEN    EMPLOYED    DURING    THE    NIGHT    IN    THE 
EAST. 

It  is  evident  in  the  Scriptures,  that  besides  these  cares, 
Ihey  had  watchmen  that  used  to  patrol  in  their  streets; 
and  it  is  natural  to  suppose,  that  they  were  these  people 
that  gave  them  notice  how  the  seasons  of  the  night  passed 
away. 

I  am  indebted  for  this  thought  to  Sir  John  Chardin's 
MS.  He  observes  in  a  note  on  Ps.  xc.  4,  that  as  the  peo- 
ple of  the  East  have  no  clocks,  the  several  parts  of  the 
day  and  of  the  night,  which  are  eight  in  all,  are  given  no- 
tice of.  In  the  Indies,  the  parts  of  the  night  are  made 
known  as  well  by  instruments,  of  music,  in  great  cities,  as 
by  the  rounds  of  the  watchmen,  who  with  cries  and  small 
drums,  give  them  notice  that  a  fourth  part  of  the  night  is 
passed.*     Now   *s  these  cries  awaked  those  who  had 

•"  The  watchmen  at  Aleppo  do  not  call  the  hour,  Dr.  Russell,  MS. 
note,  but  the  criers  from  the  mosque  sing  at  aslia,  evening,  midnight,  and 
daybrealt." 

I^i^^j  asha,  or  ysha,  si«nifies  the  first  watch  of  the  night ;  or,  according 
to  some,  the  whole  time  fiom  the  sun's  passing  the  meridian  until  the  twi- 
fifflif.        Bdit, 


GONCERXING  THEIR  CITIES,  HOUSES,  &e.  34» 

slept  all  that  quarter  part  of  (he  nigh<,  it  appeared  to  them 
but  as  a  moment.  There  are  sixty  of  these  people  in  (he 
Indies,  bj  day,  and  as  many  by  night;  that  is,,  fifteen  for 
each  division. 

It  is  apparent  the  ancient  Jews  knew  how  the  night 
passed  away,  which  must  probably  be  by  some  public 
notice  given  them ;  but  whether  it  was  by  simply  pub- 
lishing at  the  close  of  each  watch,  what  watch  was  then 
ended  j  or  whether  (hey  made  use  of  any  instruments 
of  music  in  this  business,  may  tiot  be  easily  determina- 
ble ;  and  still  less  what  measurers  of  time  the  watchmen 
made  use  of. 

OBSERVATION  XXXIII. 

WHY     JERUSALEM     WAS     CALLED    ARIEL,    THE    LION    O* 

GOD. 

The  numbers  that  assembled  at  Jerusalem  must  of 
course  consume  great  quantities  of  provision.  The  con- 
sumption of  flesh  also  must  there  have  been  much  larger, 
in  proportion  to  (he  number  of  the  people,  than  elsewhere  ; 
because  in  (he  East  they  live  in  common  very  much  on 
vegetables,  farinaceous  food,  oil,  honey,  &c.  but  at  Jerusa- 
lem vast  quantities  of  flesh  were  consumed  in  the  sacred 
feasts,"*  as  well  as  burnt  upon  the  altar. 

Perhaps  this  circumstance  will  best  explain  the  holy 
city's  being  called  Ariel,  or  the  Lion  of  God,  Isai.  xxix. 
1  :  an  appellation  which  has  occasioned  a  variety  of  spec- 
ulation among  the  learned."  Vitringa,  in  his  celebrated 
commentary  on  Isaiah,  supposes  that  David,  according  to 
the  Eastern  custom,  was  called  the  Lion  of  God,  and  so 
this  city  was  called  by  (his  name  from  him ;  a  resolution 
by  no  means  natural.  The  Arabs,  indeed,  in  later  ages, 
have  often  called  their  great  men  by  this  honourable  term  • 

"  Dent.  xii.  17,  tfi,  ch.xiy.C-J. 


344  CONCERNING  THEIR  CITIES,  HOUSES,  &c. 

d'llerbelof,  I  (hinb,  somewhere  tells  us,  that  Ali,  Mo* 
iiamnied's  son-in-law,  was  so  called  ;  and  I  am  sure  he  af- 
firms, that  Mohammed  gave  this  title  to  Harazah,*  his 
uncle.  It  will  be  readily  allowed  that  this  was  coraforma- 
ble  to  the  taste  of  much  more  ancient  times:  Vitringa's 
quotation  from  2  Sam.  xxiii.  20,  suflSciently  proves  this  j 
to  which  1  would  add,  Ezra  viii.  16.  It  will  be  allowed 
too,  that  it  was  no  improper  title  for  David,  who  was  so 
remarkable  for  his  martial  prowess.  But  if  Ariel  signi- 
fies here,  and  the  Wo  to  Ariely  to  Ariel,  is  equivalent  to 
Wo  to  the  city  of  David,  to  the  city  of  David,  why  is 
that  note  of  explanation  added,  by  the  Prophet  himself, 
the  city  where  David  drvdt  ?  what  is  more,  will  this  at  all 
aqcount  for  the  altar's  being  called  J^rieZ,  as  it  is  in  Ezek. 
xliii.  15  ?f  Is  it  not  proper  rather  to  think  of  soaie  circum- 
stance that  agrees  to  both  which  might  be  the  occasion  of 
calling  each  Ariel?  And  such,  according  to  the  Eastern 
taste,  was  the  consuming  great  quantities  of  provision,  and 
especially  of  tlesh. 

"The  modern  Persians  will  have  it,"  says  d'Herbelot, 
in  his  account  of  Shiraz,  a  city  of  that  country,  "  that 
this  name  was  given  to  it,  because  this  city  consumes 
and  devours  like  a  lion,  which  is  called  >S7icer  in  Persian, 
all  that  is  brought  to  it,  by  which  they  express  the  mul- 
titude, and  it  may  be  the  good  appetite  of  its  inhabitants." 

The  Prophet  then  pronounces  wo  to  Zion,  perhaps  as 
too  ready  to  trust  to  the  number  of  its  inhabitants  and  so- 
journers, which  may  be  insinuated  by  this  term  which  he 
uses,  Ariel. 

And  conformably  to  this  interpretation,  the  threaten- 
ing, in  the  last  clause  of  the  second  verse,  may  be  under- 
stood of  Jerusalem's  consuming  its  inhabitants.  We  read 
of  a  land  eating  up  its  inhabitants,  Numb.  xiii.  32.  Je- 
rusalem then,  which  had  been  called  Ariel  on  account  of 

»  p.  42r. 

•j-  In  the  Hebrew,  though  it  does  not  appeaf  in  our  translation,  nor  in- 
deed in  the  marginal  reading  tliere. 


CONCERNING  THEIR  CITIES,  HOUSES,  &c.  345 

the  great  quantifies  of  flesh  consumed  there,  above  all 
the  other  cities  of  Judea,  might  be  threatened  by  the 
Prophet  to  be  called  Ariel,  as  consuming  its  inhabitants 
themselves :  a  very  different  sense  from  the  preceding 
one,  and  an  extremely  bitter  one, 

OBSERVATIOlV  XXXIV. 

OP  THE  NUMBERS  WHICH  ASSEMBLED  YEARLY  AT  JE- 
RUSALEM DURING  THE  THREE  GREAT  FESTIVALS, 
AND  OF  THE  CARAVANS  WHICH  GO  ANNUALLY  TO 
MECCA. 

To  those  that  may  wonder  how  Jerusalem  could  re- 
ceive such  multitudes,  as  were  obliged  by  the  Jewish  law 
to  attend  there  three  times  a  year,  and  as  we  know  did 
sometimes  actually  appear  in  it,  I  would  recite  the  arconnt 
that  Pitts  gives  of  Mecca,  the  sacred  city  of  the  Moham- 
medans, and  the  number  of  people  he  found  collected  to- 
gether there,  for  the  celebration  of  their  religious  solem- 
nities, in  the  close  of  the  xviith  century. 

This  city,  he  tells  us,  he  thought  he  might  safely  say, 
had  not  one  thousand  families  in  it  of  constant  inhabitants^  , 
and  the  buildings  very  mean  and  ordinary.*  That  four 
caravans  arrive  there  every  year,  with  great  numbers  of 
people  in  eacb,f  and  the  Mohammedans  say,  there  meet 
not  fewer  than  seventy  thousand  souls  at  these  solemni- 
ties ;  and  that  though  he  cotdd  not  think  the  number 
quite  so  large,  yet  that  it  is  very  great. J  How  such 
numbers  of  people,  with  their  beasts,  could  be  lodged  and 
entertained  in  such  a  little  ragged  town  as  Mecca,  is  a 
question  he  thus  answers.  "  As  for  houseroom,  the  in- 
habitants do  straighten  themselves  very  much,  in  order 
at  tliis  time  to  make  their  market.  And  as  for  such  as 
come  last,  after  the  town  is  filled,  they  pitch  their  tents 
without  the  town,  and  there  abide  until  they  remove  tow- 

•  P.  8C,  87,  note,  t  P-  84.  t  P-  ^37. 

VOL.  I.  44 


948  CONCERNING  THEIR  CITIES,  HOUSES,  «c«. 

ard  home.  As  for  provision,  they  all  bring  sufficient  with 
Ihem,  except  it  be  of  flesh,  which  they  may  have  at  Mec- 
ca; but  all  other  provisions,  as  butter,  honey,  oil,  olives, 
rice,  biscuit,  &c.  they  bring  with  them,  as  much  as  will 
last  through  the  Wilderness,  forward  and  backward,  as 
well  as  the  time  they  stay  at  Mecca;  and  so  for  their 
camels  they  bring  store  of  provender,  &c.  with  them."* 
The  number  of  Jews  that  assembled  at  Jerusalem  at 
their  Passover,f  was  much  greater:  but  had  not  Jerusa- 
lem been  a  much  larger  city  than  Mecca  is,  as  in  truth  it 
was :  yet  the  present  Mohammedan  practice  of  abiding 
under  tents,  and  carrying  their  provisions  and  bedding 
vith  them,  will  easily  explain  how  they  might  be  accom- 
modated. 

OBSERVATION  XXXV. 

OF     THEin     FIREPLACES,   CHIMNIES,    METHOD      OF    ROASTING' 
THEIR    MEAT,    AND    WARMING     THEIR    APARTMENTS. 

The  reason  of  the  Jews  assembling  to  Jerusalem  was 
the  peculiar  holiness  of  that  city.  This  circumstance  oc- 
casioned them  to  make  a  difference  betwixt  that  and  their 
other  towns,  in  several  points :  they  having  only  some 
gardens  of  roses,  which  we  have  already  remarked,  J  was 
one  thing:  but  there  were  others,  which  Lightfoof§  gives 
us  an  account  of  from  Maimonides,  and  among  the  rest, 
they  did  pot  admit  of  the  making  of  chimnies  there,  by 
reason  of  the  smoke. 

•  P.  87,  88. 

f  Josephus  says,  that  in  one  year  the  number  of  lambs  slain  at  the  Pass- 
over amounted  to  55  6,500,  and  that  10  men  at  least  ate  of  one  lamb,  and 
often  many  more,  even  to  the  number  of  20  Taking  therefore  the  num- 
ber of  persons  at  the  lowest  computation,  i,  e.  10  to  one  lamb,  there  must 
Lave  been  present  tliis  year  at  Jerusalem,  not  less  than  two  milion  five 
hundred  and  sixty  five  thousaud  persons  !  See  Josephus,  War.  B.  vi.  c.  y, 
Sect.  3.    Edit. 

^  Observ.  xxiii,  §  Vol.  ii.  p.  51. 


tJONCERNING  THEIR  CITIES,  HOUSES,  &t.  34f 

*  An  inhabited  city  without  chimnies,  seems  to  be  an  od- 
dity, and  almost  an  impossibility.  F^land,  reciting*  the 
same  peculiarities  from  the  Gemara,  instead  of  chimnies 
puts  limekilns.  Whether  Maioionides,  an  Egyptian  rab- 
bi, carried  his  refinement  too  far ;  or  a  western  transla- 
tor, not  knowing  what  to  make  of  a  city  without  chimnies, 
supposed  limekilns  must  be  meant ;  I  shall  not  take  upon 
me  to  determine  :  but  I  should  not  wonder  to  find  chim- 
nies were  forbidden  in  Jerusalem,  by  those  that  carried 
their  scrupulosity  concerning  defilement  the  length  the 
Jewish  doctors  did,  as  they  are  not  so  necessary  in  an 
Eastern  city,  as  we  of  the  West  are  ready  to  imagine. 

I  have  elsewfaeref  observed  from  Dr.  Russell,  that  fires 
in  winter  are  used  but  for  a  little  while  at  Aleppo,  which 
is  considerably  further  to  the  North  than  Jerusalem,  and 
some  there  make  use  of  none  at  all;  to  which  I  would 
add  from  the  same  author,  that  the  fires  they  then  use 
in  their  lodging  rooms  are  of  charcoal,  in  pans.;};  In  like 
manner  it  appears  by  Dr.  Pococke,^  that  pans  of  coals 
are  the  fires  that  are  often  made  use  of  in  winter  in  Egypt, 
for  he  takes  notice  of  them  in  more  places  than  one,  and 
mentions  the  district  that  furnishes  the  greatest  part  of 
Egypt  with  charcoal.^ 

What  seems  most  to  have  required  the  use  of  Avood, 
and  consequently  chimnies,  was  the  dressing  the  Pascha! 
lambs  ;  for  charcoal  might  without  doubt,  be  suflScient  for 

•  ArvOq.  Sac.  p.  15.  t  Ch.  1. 

4  Trav.  into  the  East,  vol.  i.  p.  82,  and  p.  85. 

$  Od  this  Dr.  Russell  makes  the  following  observation  in  his  MS.  notes. 
*'  Several  of  their  small  lodging  rooms  have  fireplaces  ;  but  there  are 
none  in  their  great  apartments,  such  being  heated  by  brasiers  of  charcoal. 
But  their  kitchens  have  large  chimnies,  as  also  their  public  ovens  and  bag- 
nios ;  and  in  these  vast  quantities  of  wood  are  consumed,  besides  chareoal. 
To  have  prohibited  chiiunies,  must,  if  fir*  was  used  at  all,  have  more  cer- 
tainly defiled  the  city  than  the  smoke  of  them  could  have  done."    Edit. 

H  Pococke,  vol.  i.  p.  87. 


548  CONCERNING  THEIR  CITIES.  HOUSES,  &c. 

Iheir  common  cookery  :*  if,  however,  Ihey  roasted  the 
lambs  of  the  Passovi^r,  as  Thevenot  tells  iisf  the  Persians 
do  whole  sheep  as  well  as  Iambs,  which  are  not  designed 
for  sacred  purposes^  the  use  of  smoky  wood  might  be 
avoided  ;  for  f  hey  do  it,  he  says,  in  ovens,  which  have  the 
mouth  in  their  tops,  into  which,  after  they  are  well  heated, 
they  put  the  meat,  with  an  earthen  drippingpan  under- 
neath to  receive  the  fat ;  they  roast  alike  on  all  sides, 
and  he  acknowledges  that  they  dress  them  well.  He 
subjoins  another  way  of  roasting  a  whole  sheep,  practised 
by  the  Armenians,  by  which  also  the  use  of  smoky  wood 
is  avoided  ;  for  having  flayed  it,  they  cover  it  again  with 
the  skin,  and  put  it  into  an  oven  upon  the  quick  coals, 
covering  it  also  with  a  good  many  of  the  same  coals,  that 
it  may  have  fii  e  under  and  over  to  roast  it  well  on  all  sides^ 
and  the  skin  keeps  it  from  being  burnt. 

But  however  these  things  may  be,  it  is  certain  this  ac- 
count concerning  Jerusalem  is  in  no  wise  contradicted, 
but  rather  con6rmed,  by  what  St.  John  says  of  a  fire 
kindled  in  a  palace  there,  to  warm  some  people  who  had 
been  out  in  a  cold  night,  which  it  seems  was  a  fire  of  char- 
coal, not  of  wood,  John  xviii.  18,  and  gives  a  propriety  to 
the  mentioning  this  circumstance,  which  I  never  observ- 
ed remarked  in  any  author,  in  like  manner,  Paschal  ovens 
are  also  mentioned  by  Jewish  writers. 

Agreeably  to  what  I  have  been  observing,  of  the  na- 
ture of  the  fires  at  Jerusalem,  I  find  Sir  John  Chardin,  in 
Lis  MS.  notes,  supposes  the  fire  that  was  burning  beforej 
king  Jehoiakim,  and  in  which  he  burnt  Jeremiah's  roll, 
was  a  pan  of  coals.  After  giving  a  Latin  translation  of  this 
passage,  which  renders  the  word  we  translate  hearth, arwZa, 
or  a  little  altar,  he  goes  on  and  tells  us  in  French,  This 

•  As  Olearius  tells  us,  p.  757,  758,  that  they  are  obliged  in  Persia,  on  ac- 
count of  their  having  little  ■wood  there,  to  make  use  of  stoves,  or  hollow 
places  in  the  ground,  of  the  bigness  of  a  ketlle,  in  which  they  burn  char- 
coal, and  which  serve  the  inore  frugal  for  their  cooking  and  their  baki;ig. 
See  also  the  Arab  manner  of  roasting,  in  the  next  chapter. 

t  Part  ii,  p  95.  i^  Jei-.  x%xvi.  22,  23. 


CONCERNING  THEIR  CITIES,  HOUSES,  &c.  349 

vras  just  as  persons  of  quality  warm  themselves  in  winter 
in  Persia,  and  particularly  in  Media,  and  wherever  there 
is  no  want  of  wood.  1  he  manner  in  which  they  sit  will 
not  allow  them  to  be  near  a  chimney ;  in  these  places 
therefore  of  the  East,  they  have  great  brasiers  of  lighted 
coals.  It  is  certain,  it  is  not  the  common  word  which 
signifies  hearth  in  the  original,  but  one  that  does  not  ap- 
pear any  where  else  in  the  Old  Testament.* 

^-• 

tj  OBSERVATION  XXXVI. 

OF     THEIR     ACCOMMODATIONS     AT     THEIR    PUBLIC     FES- 
TIVALS. 

And  now  I  am  engaged  in  making  remarks  on  the  Jew- 
ish account  of  the  peculiarities  of  Jerusalem,  I  will  take 
the  liberty  of  adding  one  observation  more  of  this  sort, 
though  I  do  not  recollect  that  any  passage  of  holy  writ 
will  be  explained  by  it.     It  relates   to   the  prohibition, 

•  The  word  i»  nXH  ha  ach,  vhich  Parkhurst  supposes  to  mean  a  bra- 
sier.  These  he  observes  were  in  use  among  the  ancient  Greeks,  and  were 
called  by  Homer  Aa^ttk^sc  :  Odyss.  xix.  1.  63,64,  where  he  says  thai 
Penelope's  maids  ihrew  the  embers  out  of  the  ^rasters  upon  the  floor,  and 
then  heaped  fresh  wood  on  them  to  afford  both  light  and  warmth. 

Tlv^  ^'  ctTTo  AAMnXHPIlN  ^ctijui^i?  Q,ot,Kov  xWoi  ^'  gTr  auTjj? 

Ntjjjff'otv  |uA*  TToAha,  (pocog  iuiv  y,^i  0EPE20AI. 

Compare  Odyssey  xviii.  306 — 310,  312. 

The  modern  Greeks  imitate  their  ancestors  in  this;  fhey  have  no  chim- 
iiiea,  but  a  brasier,  called  xotyttTTTDg,  stands  upon  a  tripod  in  the  middle  of 
the  room,  on  which  they  burn  wood.  See  INIons.  de  Guy's  Sentimental 
Journey  through  Greece.    Habmer. 

Though  Dr.  Russell  in  a  MS.  note  rather  questions  this  criticism,  yet  his 
observation  casts  some  light  upon  the  passage.  As  the  words  stand  in  our 
translation  of  this  place  in  Jeremiah,  it  would  seem  to  have  been  a  hearth, 
not  a  brasier,  otherwise  the  burning  of  the  wood  would  have  filled  tlie 
house  with  smoke.  Persons  of  quality  at  Aleppo  have  small  winter  cham- 
bers, which  have  a  chimnei/  and  a  hearth  raised  about  a  foot  from  the  floors 
and  they  even  jdace  their  charcoal  in  a  pan  there,  to  avoid  the  deleterious 
effects  of  its  fume  in  a  close  place.  Thtir  mode  of  sitting  is  no  impedi- 
ment, the  divan  is  formed  in  the  usual  manner.  This  observation,  in  m;- 
■opinion,  is  perfectly  Batisfaclory,  and  solves  all  the  difTiculties.        Edit. 


CONCERNING  THEIR  CITIES,  HOUSES,  &e. 

mentioned  by  LighJfoot  in  the  same  place,*  of  sellini^iip 
scaffolds  against  the  wall,  which  was  forbidden  at  Jerusa- 
lem, as  being  an  holj  place.  Keland  expresses  this  much 
more  intelligibly,  by  the  term  meniana  adiian,  which 
signifies  balconies,  or  something  of  that  sort.  But  why 
were  they  forbidden  ?  It  is  said,  on  account  of  defilement : 
but  how  balconies,  or  conveniences  of  a  similar  nature, 
should  have  been  defiling,  does  not  appear  very  obvious. 
Perhaps  the  use  that  is  made  of  balconies,  or  latticed 
windows,  in  their  public  festivals  at  this  time  in  the  Le<> 
rant,  may  account  for  this  prohibition.  Dr.  Shaw  will 
explain  this,  who,  after  having  observed  that  the  jeal- 
ousy of  the  people  there  admits  only  of  one  small  latticed 
window  into  the  street,  the  rest  opening  into  their  own 
courts,  says,  "It  is  during  the  celebration  only  of  some 
seenaf  as  they  call  a  public  festival,  that  these  houses  and 
their  latticed  windows  or  balconies  are  left  open.  For 
this  being  a  time  of  great  liberty,  revelling,  and  extrava- 
gance, each  family  is  ambitious  of  adorning  both  the  in- 
side and  the  outside  of  the  houses  with  their  richest  furni- 
ture,! whilst  crowds  of  both  sexes,  dressed  out  in  their 
best  apparel,  and  laying  aside  all  modesty  and  restraint, 
go  in  and  out  where  they  please.  The  account  we  have, 
2  Kings  ix.  30,  of  Jezebel's  painting  her  face,  and  tiring 
her  head,  and  looking  out  at  a  window,  upon  Jehu's  pub- 
lic entrance  into  Jezreel,  gives  us  a  lively  idea  of  an  East- 
ern lady  at  one  of  these  zeenahs  or  solemnities."  J  Some 
of  the  heathen  religious  festivals  were  very  lewd,  but 
great  modesty  was  a  distinguishing  characteristic  of  the 
Jewish;  for  that  reason,  possibly,  no  meniana  were  sufier- 
ed  in  the  holy  city  of  the  Jews. 

*  Vol.  ii.  p.  CI. 

f  Dr.  Russell  observes,  MS.  note,  "  The  private  ttierehants  and  others 
do  not  adorn  their  AoMses,  but  only  the  public  It hans,  an6  bazars  vrhere 
they  have  their  chambers  or  shops."    Edit. 

i  P.  207. 


CONCERNING  THEIR  CITIES,  HOUSES,  &c.  35 1 

*  OBSERVATION  XXXVII.  «fc 

DOGS    IN     THE     EAST    SUPPORTED     BY    PUBLIC    CUARITY. 

The  great  external  purity  which  is  so  studiously  at- 
tended to  by  the  modern  Eastern  people,  as  well  as  the 
ancient,  produces  some  odd  circumstances  with  respect 
lo  their  dogs. 

They  do  not  suffer  them  in  their  houses,  and  even  with 
care  avoid  their  touching  them  in  the  streets,  which  would 
be  considered  as  a  defilement.  One  would  imagine  then, 
that  under  these  circumstances,  as  they  do  not  appear  by 
any  means  to  be  necessary  in  their  cities,  however  import- 
ant they  may  be  to  those  that  feed  flocks,  there  should 
be  very  few  of  these  creatures  found  in  those  places  ; 
they  are  notwithstanding  there  in  great  numbers,  and 
crowd  their  streets.  They  do  not  appear  to  belong  to 
particular  persons  as  our  dogs  do,  nor  to  be  fed  distinctly 
by  such  as  might  claim  some  interest  in  them,  but  get 
their  food  as  they  can.  At  the  same  time  they  consider 
it  as  right  to  take  some  care  of  them,  and  the  charitable 
people  among  them  frequently  give  money  every  week, 
or  month,  to  butchers  and  bakers  to  feed  them  at  stated 
times,  and  some  leave  legacies  at  their  deaths,  for  the 
same  purpose;  this  is  le  Bruyn's  account.*  Thevenot 
and  Maillet  mention  something  of  the  same  sort.f 

In  like  manner  dogs  seem  to  have  been  looked  upon 
among  the  Jews  in  a  disagreeable  light,  1  Sam,  xvii.  43^ 
2  Kings  viii.  13;  yet  they  had  them  in  considerable  num- 
bers in  their  cities,  Ps.  lix.  14.  They  were  not,  however, 
shut  up  in  their  houses  or  courts,  Ps.  lix.  6,  14;  but  seem 
to  have  been  forced  to  seek  their  food  where  they  could 
find  it,  Ps.  lix.  15;  to  which  I  may  add,  that  some  care 
of  thera  seems  to   be   indirectly  enjoined  to  the   Jews. 

•  Tom.  i.  p.  361,  362. 
t  Thcv.  part  i  p.  51,  52.        Mftillet,  Let.  ix.  p.  3^. 


352  COJTCBRNING  THEIR  CITIES,  HOUSES,  &o. 

Exod.  xxii.  31  ;  circumstances  that  seem  to  be  more  il- 
lustrated by  these  travellers  into  the  East,  than  by  any 
commentators  that  I  know  of.* 


OBSERVATION  XXXVIIl. 

OF    THEIK    DOVE  HOUSES,    PIGEONS,    &C.  '^ 

The  prophet  Isaiahf  apparently  supposes,  that  build- 
ings for  the  reception  of  doves  were  common  in  those 
countries  in  his  time,  when  he  says,  Who  are  these  thatjly 
as  a  cloud,  and  as  doves  to  their  windows. 

Dandini  however,  the  nuncio  to  theMaronites,  who  de- 
scribes himself  as  very  curious  in  making  observations  on 
the  Eastern  countries,  tells  us,  there  are  no  dove  houses 
to  be  seen  in  Mount  Libanus,  nor  in  all  the  Levant,  though 
there  are  an  abundance  of  pigeons,  turtle  doves,  and  all 
sorts  of  birds.  J 

Is  there  then  a  change  in  the  Eastern  managements 
in  relation  to  this  point  ?  There  is  not.  The  nuncio  was 
only  not  so  careful  in  making  observations  as  be  himself 
supposed  to  be,  or  the  places  in  Syria  he  travelled  through 
unfortunately  differed  from  the  rest  of  that  country.  "Kef- 
teen,"  says  Maundrell,  in  the  very  beginning  of  his  trav- 
els, **  is  a  large  plentiful  village  on  the  West  side  of  the 
plain  ;  and  the  adjacent  fields  abounding  with  corn,  give 
the  inhabitants  great  advantage  for  breeding  pigeons;  in- 
somuch that  you  find  here  more  dove  cotes  than  other 
houses. "§ 

And  as  for  Egypt,  the  tops  of  all  their  habitations  ia 
the  Southern  part  of  it,  are  always  terminated  by  a  pigeon 
house ;  and  there  is  in  some  places  a  law,  which  does  not 

•  The  passages  quoted  here  from  the  Psalms  are  more  apposite  to  the 
Subject  than  those  from  Samuel,  Kings  and  Exodus.        Edit. 

t  Ch.  Ix.  8.  t  Ch.  X.  p.  43.     "  All  sorts  of  birds." 

This  is  a  very  gross  mistake,  and  at  once  shows  how  little  Dandini  is  to  be 
pependedon.    Edit. 

J  P.  3. 


CONCERNING  THEIR  CITIES,  HOUSES,  &c.  35S 

permit  anj  man  to  raarrj,  and  to  keep  house,  unless  he 
is  in  possession  of  such  a  dove  house,  if  we  maj  believe 
Norden.*  Dr.  Shaw,  also,  has  thought  it  not  right  to 
omit  dove  houses,  when  he  gave  a  prospect  of  an  Egyptian 
village.f 

Where  art  intervenes  not,  pigeons  build  in  those  hol- 
lownesses  nature  provides  for  them.  I  have  taken  notice, 
in  another  work,  of  this  properly  of  these  birds,J  and 
cited  a  passage  from  Dr*  Shaw,  which  informs  us,  that  a 
certain  city  in  Africa  is  called  Hamamet,  from  the  Ha- 
raan,  or  wild  pigeons  that  copiously  breed  in  the  adjoin- 
ing cliffs.  The  very  ingenious  as  well  as  honorable  Wil- 
liam Hamilton,  Esq.  his  Majesty's  envoy  extraordinary 
at  Naples,  who  has  most  laudably  joined  philosophical 
inquiries  to  national  cares,  has  given  us  another  proof  of 
this  quality  of  pigeons ;  for  in  a  most  curious  paper  re- 
lating to  Mount  Etna,§  which  mentions  a  number  of 
subterraneous  caverns  there,  he  tells  us  one  of  them 
was  called  by  the  peasants,  La  Spelonca  della  Palomba, 
from  the  wild  pigeons  building  their  nests  therein.  Cant, 
ii.  14,  evidently  refers  to  this  property,  as  does  also  Jer. 
xlviii.  28. 

Though  Etna  is  a  burning  mountain,  he  found  the  cold 
in  these  caverns  excessive.  This  shows  that  pigeons 
delight  in  cool  retreats;  and  explains  the  reason  why 
they  resort  to  mountains,  which  are  known  to  be  very 
cold,  even  in  those  hot  countries.  Mount  Sinai  has  been 
found  to  be  so  by  travellers,  though  situated  amidst  the 
sultry  deserts  of  Arabia. ||  The  words  of  the  Psalmist, 
Flee  as  a  bird  to  your  mountain,  without  doubt  refer  to 
the  flying  of  doves  thither,  when  frightened  by  the  fowler. 
If  the  mountains  are  cool,  the  vallies  are  extremely 
hot.  Doves  are  described  as  often  in  the  vallies  howev- 
er: they  are  so,  Ezek.  vii.  16.     It  should  seem  this  is  on 

•  Vol.  2.  p.  £0,  21.  f  See  tlic  plate  facing  p.  291. 

4  Outlinec  of  a  new  Commentarv  on  SoIodjoh's  Soi.g,  p.  254,  255. 

§  See  riiU.  Trati!).  vol.  fiO,  for  1770.  ||  Fgmoiit.  vol.  2  p.  109. 


354  CONCERNING  THEIR  CITIES,  HOUSES,  kc 

account  of  the  waters  they  find  there,  in  which  they  de- 
light :  so  Dr.  Russell  tells  us,  when  pigeons  were  em- 
ployed as  posts,  they  not  only  placed  the  paper  contain- 
ing tire  news  under  the  wing,  to  prevent  its  being  destroy- 
ed by  wet,  but  "  used  to  bathe  their  feet  in  vinegar,  with 
a  view  to  keeping  them  tool,  so  as  they  might  not  settle 
to  drink  or  wash  themselves,  which  would  have  destroyed 
the  paper."*  They  were  fond  of  the  water  which  they 
found  in  the  vallies  j  but  took  up  their  abode,  and  built 
their  nests,  in  cavities  of  the  mountains. 

Consul  Drumraond  not  only  confirms  the  account  we 
have  of  pigeon  houses  in  Syria,  but  gives  ns  to  understand 
they  are  considerable  edifices  ;  for  be  tells  us,  "  the  village 
Bellremon  makes  a  tolerable  appearance  at  a  distance,  but 
when  we  approached  it,  we  found  the  houses  were  mere 
huts,  and  that  the  deception  was  occasioned  by  their  pig- 
eon houses,  which  are  long,  square  buildings."f 

OBSERVATION    XXXIX. 

TREES  AND   PLANTATIONS   ABOUT  THEIR  HOUSES'. 

Plantations  of  trees  about  houses  are  found  very  use- 
ful in  hot  countries,  to  give  them  an  agreeable  coolness^ 
The  ancient  Israelites  seem  to  have  made  use  of  the  same 
means,  and  probably  planted  fruit  trees  rather  than  other 
kinds,  to  produce  that  effect. 

"  It  is  their  manner  in  many  places,"  says  Sir  Thomas 
Row's  chaplain,J  speaking  of  the  country  of  the  Great 
Mogul,  "to  plant  about,  and  amongst  their  buildings,  trees 
which  grow  high  and  broad,  the  shadow  whereof  keeps 
their  houses  by  far  more  cool :  this  I  observed  in  a  spe- 
cial manner,  when  we  were  ready  to  enter  Amadavar ;  for 
it  appeared  to  us,  as  if  we  had  been  entering  a  wood  rather 
than  a  city." 

The  expression,  in  the  Old  Testament,  of  people's 
dwelling  under  their   vines   and  their  Jig   trees,  seeme 

*  Vol,  ii.  p.  203.  t  P-  195.  t  P.  39^ 


CONCERNING  THEIR  CITIES,  HOUSES,  6cc.  355 

eironsily  lo  intimate,  that  this  method  ancientlj  obtained 
Bjuch  in  Judea;*  and  that  vines  and  fig  trees  were  what 
were  coininonlj  used  in  that  country.  r 

]\orwas  this  management  at  all  to  be  wondered  at ;  as  the 
ancient  patriarchs  found  it  very  agreeable  to  pitch  their 
tents  under  the  shade  of  some  thick  tree,f  their  children 
might  naturally  be  disposed  to  plant  them  about  their 
bouses. 

ii  And  as  it  was  requisite  for  them  to  raise  as  many  eat> 
ables  as  they  could,  in  so  very  populous  a  country  as  thai 
was,  it  is  no  wonder  they  planted  fig  trees,  whose  shade 
was  thickened  by  vines,  about  their  housest  under  which 
they  might  sit  in  the  open  air,  and  yet  in  thje  cool. 

.  This  writer  mentions  another  circumstance,  in  which 
there  is  an  evident  similarity  between  the  ancient  Jews 
and  these  more  Eastern  people  :  "  But  for  their  houses  in 
their  aldeasy  or  villages,  which  stand  very  thick  in  that 
country,  they  are  generally  very  poor  and  base.  All 
those  country  dwellings  are  set  up  close  together;  for  I 
never  observed  any  house  there  to  stand  single,  and 
alone."J 

The  account  the  Baron  deTolt  gives  of  the  Egyptian 
villages,  shows  they  are  shaded  in  much  the  same  man- 
ner, part  iv.  p.  63.  "  Wherever  the  inundation  can  reach, 
their  habitations  are  erected,  on  little  hills,  raised  for 
that  purpose,  which  serve  for  the  common  foundation  of  all 
the  houses  which  stand  together,  and  which  are  contrived 
to  lake  up  as  little  room  as  possible,  that  they  may  save 
all  the  ground  they  can  for  cultivation.  This  precaution 
Is  necessary,  to  prevent  the  water's  washing  away  the 
walls,  which  are  only  of  mud.'* 

"  The  villages  are  always  surrounded  by  an  infinite 
number  of  pointed  turrets,  meant  to  invite  thither  the 
pigeons,  in  order  to  collect  the  dung.  Every  village  has, 
likewise,  a  small  wood  of  palm  trees  near  it,  the  property 
of  which  is  common  :  these  supply  the  inhabitants  with 

•  1  Kings  iy.  25.  t  G«n.  XTiii.  I,  4,  8.  i  P.  4C». 


356  CONCERNING  THEIU  CITIES,  HOUSES,  ke. 

dates  for  their  consumption,  and  leaves  for  fabrication  of 
baskets,  mats,  and  other  things  of  that  kind.  Little 
causeways,  raised,  in  like  manner,  above  the  inundation, 
preserve  a  communication  during  the  time  it  lasts.'*       'i-i 

Palm  trees,  according  to  this,  are  planted  universally 
about  the  Egyptian  villages ;  had  they  been  as  generally 
about  the  Jewish  towns,  Jericho  would  hardly  have  been 
called  the  city  of  palm  trees,^  by  way  of  distinction  from 
the  rest.  It  appears  to  have  been,  in  Judea,  rather  a  pe- 
culiarity. 

But  the  Jewish  towns  and  houses  might  be  wont  to  be 
surrounded  by  other  trees,  proper  for  their  use,  which 
probably  were  vines  and  fig  trees,  which  furnished  two 
great  articles  of  food  for  their  consunoplion,  and  the  cut- 
tings of  their  vines  must  have  been  useful  to  them  for  fuel.f 
That  plantations  of  some  sort  of  trees  were  common  about 
the  Jewish  towns,  may  be  deduced  even  from  the  term 
13:j  kopker,  used  in  their  language  for  a  village,  which  is 
derived  from  a  root  that  signifies  to  cover  or  hide, 

OBSERVATION  XL. 

OF  THEIR  CASTLES,  TOWERS,  GATES,  &C. 

Ix  my  preface  to  these  Observations  on  the  Scriptures 
I  observed,  that  transactions  and  customs  in  countries 
very  remote  from  Jtidea,  may  throw  some  light  over  par. 
ticular  passages  of  Scripture,  in  the  same  way  as  Bucha- 
nan's relations  of  the  manners  of  the  ancient  Scots,  are 
found  to  illustrate  some  circumstances  recorded  by  Ho- 
mer, which  immediately  relate  to  Greek  and  Asiatic  he- 
roes;  the  very  ingenious  Mr.  King  seems  to  have  fallen 
into  the  same  way  of  thinking,  in  a  very  long,  but  curious 
paper  of  his,  relating  to  our  old  British  castles,  read  to  the 

*  Dcut.  xxxiv.  3,   2  Chron.  xxviii.  15. 

t  EzcTc.  ;-:v.  fc,  I  l::,vc  iruleeJ  experimentally  found  the  larger  cuttings  of 
the  vine  make  (n-  'lent  fuel,  of  the  slighter  sort,  p.iuI  they  wanted  little 
other  in  J'.i^Ita. 


CONCERNING  THEIR  CITIES,  HOUSES,  &c.  357 

Antiquarian  Sociely,  and  published  by  Ihem  in  the  6lh 
volume  of  (he  Archfeologia, 

V  "1  should  be  sorry  to  indulge  myself  iu  carrying  con- 
jectures, relating  to  high  antiquity,  too  far;  but,  when  I 
consider  with  what  care  and  pains  a  magnificent  state- 
room has  been  formed,  in  evecy  one  of  these  kind  of  tow- 
ers of  ent.ance,  I  cannot  but  reflect  upon  what  we  so  of- 
ten read  with  regard  to  the  earliest  ages  of  the  world,  of 
kings  sitting  in  the  gates  of  cities,  and  of  judgment  being 
administered  in  Ihegate."* 

This  note  relates  immediately  to  a  noble  room  over 
the  gateway  of  the  castle  at  Tunbridge,  in  Kent,  of 
which  the  plan  is  given  us  in  the  34th  plate  of  that  vol- 
ume, but  which  is  nothing  peculiar  to  that  castle,  for  sim- 
ilar rooms  were  found  by  him  in  other  ancient  buildings  of 
that  kind. 

*'  This  stateroom,  he  tells  us,f  appears  to  have  been 
very  magnificent,  and  of  great  dimensions,  including  the 
whole  area  of  all  the  three  rooms  beneath.  J  It  is  now  in- 
deed divided  into  three  such  apartments  as  those  are,  but 
the  walls  forming  the  divisions  are  mere  modern  erections, 
of  very  late  years,  raised  as  the  proprietor  informed  me, 
on  the  top  of  the  original  ones  in  the  lower  floor,  with  a 
view  to  fit  up  a  small  room  as  a  library ;  which  design 
was  afterward  laid  aside.'* 

In  this  stateroom  is  a  large  fire  hearth  and  chimney, 
and  "  two  very  fine  large  windows,  highly  ornamented,  in 
the  style  that  bogan  to  be  introduced  in  the  time  of  king 
John,  and  in  the  earliest  part  of  the  reign  of  Henry  III. 
but  they  appear  to  have  had  no  glass,  and  to  have  been 
the  usage  in  early  times, 

— «<  It  was  no  less  than  seventeen  feet  in  height.  The 
beams  of  the   floor  for  greater   strength,   were  placed 

•  P.  290,  291,  note.  t  ^'-  284,  &c. 

♦  Consequently  must  liavc  been  about  fiftylwo  feet  long,  from  the  meas- 
ures he  gives  us  of  the  lower  rooms,  Ihe  lliickncss  of  the  walls  on  each  side 
of  the  passage  into  the  castle,  and  ^b*  breadth  of  the  passage  itself 


3^         CONCERNING  THEIR  CITIES,  HOUSES,  &•• 

much  nearer  to  each  other  than  those  of  the  floor  beneath  : 
indeed,  they  are  hardly  the  width  of  a  beam  asunder,  and 
seem  to  have  been  intended  to  support  occasionally  the 
weight  of  a  great  concourse  of  people." 

— "  The  ceiling  of  this  room  was  still  more  remarkable 
than  the  floor,  being  no  less  than  three  feet  in  thickness; 
designed  manifestly  to  support  not  only  the  lead  of  the 
flat  roof,  but  moreover  the  great  weight  of  balistas,  cata- 
pultas,  and  other  engines  of  war,  placed  their  occasion- 
ally." 

If  there  were  such  rooms  in  the  towers  of  entrance  into 
the  Jewish  cities,  it  is  no  wonder  they  made  use  of  them 
for  the  elders  to  sit  in  when  they  held  their  courts  of  judi- 
cature. 

This  gentleman  goes  no  further  in  his  attempt  to  illus- 
trate the  Scriptures,  but  I  would  beg  leave  to  pursue  the 
thought.  In  describing  the  ground  floor  of  this  tower  of 
entrance,  after  the  first  portcullis,  which  was  of  an  enor- 
mous size,  he  tells  us,  was  a  pair  of  strong  gates  ;*  about 
fifteen  feet  further  was  another  pair  of  great  gates,  if  the 
plan  is  drawn  with  exactness;  and  after  them  a  second 
portcullis.  In  the  middle  of  the  whole  passage,  and  be- 
tween the  two  pair  of  great  gates,  were  two  small  door- 
ways, one  on  each  side,  both  secured  by  a  strong  portcul- 
lis first,  and  then  by  an  iron  door,  which  led  to  the  two 
apartments,  on  either  side  the  gateway  one.  The  room 
on  the  left  hand  had  no  chimney,  and  seems  to  have  serv- 
ed merely  for  lodging  stores,  but  that  on  the  right  had  a 
large  fireplace,  and  adjoining  to  it,  in  the  wall,  a  recess, 
which  served  for  a  privj^  Similar  rooms  were  over  these, 
and  above  them  the  grand  stateroom,  to  which  they  as- 
cended by  staircases,  to  which  they  went  through  the 
lower  rooms,  as  from  the  stateroom,  staircases  led  to  the 
leads,  or  open  top  of  the  building. 

After  this  I  would  set  down  the  description  that  the  sa- 
cred historian  gives  us,  of  the  situation  of  David  in  the 

*  P,  280,  &«. 


CONCERNmO  THEIR  CITIES,  HOUSES,  &c.  35^ 

entrance  of  Mahanaim,  during  the  battle  fought  between 
his  adherents  and  Absalom,  and  in)mediately  after.*  And 
David  sat  between  the  two  gales  ;f  and  the  watchman 
went  up  to  the  roof  over  the  gate  unto  the  wall,  and  lift 
up  his  eyes  and  looked^  and  beheld  a  man  running  alone. 
And  the  watchman  cried  and  told  the  king.  And  the  king 
'  said,  if  he  is  alone,  there  is  tidings  in  his  mouth.  And 
(he  watchman  saw  another  man  running,  and  the  watch- 
man called  unto  the  porter,  and  said,  beholdt  another  man 
running  alone.  And  the  king  said,  he  also  bringeth  ti- 
dings. And  Ahimaas  called,  and  said  unto  the  king, 
all  is  well.  And  the  king  said,  turn  aside,  and  stand 
here.  And  he  turned  aside,  and  stood  still.  And  be- 
hold Hushi  came.  And  the  king  said  unto  Hushi,  is  the 
young  man  Absalom  safe.''  And  Hushi  answered,  the 
enemies  of  my  lord  the  king,  and  all  that  rise  against 
thee  to  do  thee  hurt,  be  as  that  young  man  is.  And  the 
king  was  much  moved,  and  went  tip  to  the  chamber  over 
the  gate,  and  wept :  and  as  he  went,  thus  he  said,  O  my 
son  Absalom  !  Sec.  Then  the  king  rose,  and  sat  in  the 
gale:  and  they  told  unto  alt  the  people,  saying,  behold, 
the  king  doth  sit  in  the  gate;  and  all  the  people  came 
before  the  king :  for  Israel  had  fed  every  man  to  hia 
tent. 

Here  we  see  this  tower  of  entrance  info  Mahanaim  fur- 
nished, like  the  castle  at  Tunbridge,  with  two  pair  of 
gates,  the  one  at  a  distance  from  the  other  j  the  king  sit- 
ting l)etween  them,  not,  we  may  justly  believe,  in  the  pas- 
sage itself  so  as  to  block  up  the  way,  or  at  all  to  incom- 
mode those  that  might  be  going  or  coming,  but  in  a  room 
by  the  side  of  the  way,  as  in  the  English  castle ;  we  find 
a  watchman  stationed  on  the  top  of  this  tower  of  entrance, 
made.,  without  doubt,  commodious  for  that   purpose,  by 

*  2  Sam.  XA-iii.  24 — 3.3,  ch.  six.  8. 

f  Not  two  difTerent  entrances  into  tljat  city  through  tlifferent  places  of 
lis  wall,  but  tu-o  different   gates  in   one  and   the  same   tower  of  entranof- 
Thiu  bishop  Vatriek  saw,  anH  renarlfcs  ia  h«  cojumentftrT  on  thii  plaoft^ 


060  CONCERNING  THEIR  CITIES,  HOUSES,  &«. 

the  staircases  conimunicating  with  each  other  frora  the 
bottom  to  the  top,  as  the  English  structure  was  flat,  and 
covered  with  lead,  for  the  purpose  of  descrying  at  a  dis- 
tance those  that  were  approaching,  as  well  as  wounding 
assailants  ;  we  find  the  observations  made  by  this  watch- 
man were  not  comaiunicated  by  him  immediately  to  the 
king,  but  by  the  intervention  of  a  warder  at  the  outer  gate 
of  this  tower  ;  and  that  there  was  a  communication  between 
this  lower  room,  in  which  David  first  placed  himself,  and 
the  upper  room  over  the  gateway,  for  by  that  mean  he  re- 
tired to  give  full  vent  to  his  sorrows.  All  that  appears 
uncertain  is,  in  what  part  of  this  building  he  sat,  for  it  is 
evident  he  continued  in  some  part  of  the  gate,*  when  he 
returned  his  thanks  to  his  officers  and  people  for  their  ex- 
ertions in  his  favour,  or,  in  the  language  of  the  historian, 
spake  to  the  hearts  of  his  servants,-f  and  when  he  receiv- 
ed their  compliments  of  congratulation  ;  it  is,  I  say,  some- 
what uncertain,  whether  he  met  his  friends  in  the  upper 
chamber,  whither  he  retired  to  mourn,  which  the  author 
of  the  paper  in  the  Archaeologia  would  call  the  state- 
room ;  or  in  the  room  where  he  first  sat  between  the  two 
gates ;  or  in  some  other  apartment  of  that  building.  Joab 
indeed,  we  are  told,  with  great  roughness  laid  before  him 
the  necessity  of  laying  aside  his  mourning,  of  appearing  in 
public,  and  graciously  acknowledging  the  service  his  peo- 
ple had  done  him,  in  doing  which  he  calls  upon  him,  to 
arise  and  go  forth  ;  but  this  does  not  inform  us  where  he 
sat  in  state,  only  we  know  from  the  following  verse| 
that  it  was  somewhere  in  the  gate.  And  the  words  go 
forth  might  even  only  mean,  arise  from  the  ground  on 
which  thou  liest,  go  out  of  this  closet,  or  this  obscure 
corner,^  where  thou  hast  given  up  thyself  to  mourning, 
into  this  adjoining  stateroom,  and  appear  like  thyself,  the 

»  Oh.  xix.  V.  8.  fSee  ch.  xix.  v.  7,  margin.  t  The  8th. 

§  A.nd  Mr.  King  has  shown,  that  very  frequently  small  recesses  attendeil 
these  public  rooms  in  or  over  the  gates  of  our  old  English  castle?. 


CONCERNING  THEIR  CITIES,  HOUSES,  ko.  361 

king  of  Israel,  to  whom  God  has  preserved  the  crown,  on 
a  seat  of  dignitj  suitable  to  thy  present  state. 

We  sit  not  now,  in  common,  in  the  gates  of  our  public 
buildings,  but  bishop  Pococke,  when  he  travelled  in  these 
countries,  found  this  ancient  custom  still  kept  up.  So 
speaking  of  the  ancient  Bjblus,  he  says,  "  When  I  re- 
turned from  viewing  the  town,  the  sheik  and  the  elders 
were  sitting  in  the  gate  of  the  city,  after  the  ancient  man- 
ner, and  I  sat  awhile  with  them."* 

There  is  another  circumstance  relating  to  this  old  cas- 
tle at  Tunbridge,  which  is  mentioned  in  the  same  paper  of 
the  Archaeologia,  and  which  should  not  be  passed  over  in 
silence  here,  and  that  is  the  use  of  pitch  instead  of  lime, 
for  cementing  stones  together.  "  On  digging  at  the  bot- 
tom of  the  fosse,"  he  tells  the  Antiquarian  Society,  "  were 
found  remaining  the  foundations  of  two  piers,  which  sup- 
ported the  bridge  ;  and  which  were  constructed  in  a  very 
remarkable  manner,  the  stones  being  laid  in  pitch,  mixed 
with  hair,  instead  of  mortar." 

When  it  is  said  in  the  book  of  Genesis,!  that  in  building 
the  tower  of  Babel  they  had  slime  for  mortar,  by  which 
bitumen  is  supposed  to  be  meant,  which  very  much  re- 
sembles pitch,  and  which  pitchy  substance  the  earth 
throws  out  in  various  places,  it  is  not  a  necessary  conse- 
quence, derivable  from  that  account,  that  it  was  the  first 
kind  of  cement  that  ever  was  made  use  of  since  the  use  of 
lime  might  be  known  in  that  age,  and  the  bitumen  be  used 
notwithstanding,  as  pitch  in  the  castle  at  Tunbridge,  for 
its  supposed  strength. 

Many  structures  of  stone  have  been  raised  up  without 
any  cement  at  all,  and  there  are  some  such  still  remaining 
in  Scotland,  as  appears  by  the  papers  of  the  Antiquarian 
Society,:}:  so  artfully  were  the  stones  laid  :  but  whenTun- 

•  Trav.  vol,  ii.  p.  98.  f  Gen.  xi.  3. 

i  Nicbuhr  found  many  buildings  in  the  Southern  part  of  Arabia,  tbatbail 
no  cement,  but  were  formed  of  loose  stones  placed  with  some  management 
on  each  other.     Voy.  tom.  i. 
VOL,  I.  4fi 


362        cuNcJEHNftjc  iuiih ' ciriES,  ii'dusEs/8ic. 

bridge  castle  was  built,  the  use  of  lime  was  certainly  well 
known  in  England;  pitch  must  have  been  chosen  on  ac- 
count of  its  supposed  strength ;  bitumen  might  be  used  for 
ihe  same  reason,  in  the  construction  of  the  tower  of  Babel* 
The  early  use  of  burnt  brick  in  the  building  the  tower, 
deserves  attention  too:  They  said  one  to  another,  go  tOy 
let  vs  make  brick,  and  burn  them  thoroughly.  And  they 
had  brick  for  stone,  and  slime  had  they  for  mortar.  A 
great  part,  perhaps  the  largest,  of  the  bricks  that  are  used 
at  this  day  in  these  countries  are  only  dried  in  the  sun,  as 
I  have  already  had  occasion  to  observe. 

OBSERVATION  XLI. 
euaious  particulars  concerning  ancient  gastles, 

ILLUSTRATING  2  KINGS  ix.  13. 

The  same  ingenious  gentleman,*  in  the  same  paper  of 
observations  on  our  old  castles,  gives  us  a  note  designed 
to  illustrate,  though  with  great  modesty,  another  passage 
of  Scripture,  which  it  may  not  be  amiss  to  add  to  the  pre- 
ceding. 

"  When  I  read,  in  the  9th  ch.  of  the  2d  book  of  Kings, 
that  on  Jehu's  being  anointed  king  over  Israel,  at  Ramoth 
Gilead,  the  captains  of  the  host,  who  were  then  sitting  in 
council,  as  soon  as  they  heard  thereof,  took  every  man  his 
garment,  and  put  it  under  him,  on  the  top  of  the  stairs  ; 
and  blew  with  trumpets,  proclaiming  Jehu  is  king  ;  and 
when  I  consider  the  account  given  by  Herodotus,  of  the 
ancient  Ecbatana,  which  was  at  no  great  distance  from 
Syria,  and  in  a  country  much  connected  with  it ;  and  re- 
flect also  on  the  appearance  of  the  top  of  the  staircases 
both  at  Launceston  and  Connisborough  ;f  when,  I   say,  I 

*  Archisol.  vol.  vi.  p.  293.  f  According  to  the  23d  plate  of  this 

volume,  which  gives  us  representations  of  this  castle  at  Connisborough,  in 
one  comer  of  a  court,  strongly  walled  in,  is  a  keep,  or  tower  of  peculiar 
strength,  to  which  the  ascent  is  by  a  narrow,  steep,  and  dangerous  flight 
of  many  steps,  which  Mr.  King  supposes  might  resemble  the  stairs  ascend- 
ing the  tower  in  which  Jehu  was  sitting  in  council,  and  on  the  top  of  whicli 
stairs  he  was  proclaimed. 


CONCERNING  THEIR  CITIES,  HOUSES,  &c.  363 

consiuer  all  these  circumstances,  I  am  very  apt  to  con- 
clude, that  at  either  of  the  two  latter  places  is  still  to  be 
beheld,  nearly  the  same  kind  of  scenery,  as  to  building, 
which  was  exhibited  to  the  world,  on  the  remarkable  oc- 
casion of  inaugurating  Jehu  at  Ramoth  Gilead  :  but  I  dare. 
not  determine  precisely  on  a  matter  of  such  very  high  an- 
tiquity ;  and  leave  every  one  to  form  his  own  conclusions, 
from  what  has  been  here  laid  before  him,  as  to  the  affini- 
ty of  these  kinds  of  buildings,  and  the  derivation  of  their 
original  plan  from  the  East." 

This  is  very  ingenious,  as  well  as  amiably  modest.    A 
I  would  say  on  this   obscure  subject  is  comprised  in  the 
following  particulars.   ' ^^  »  *  «'  <  ^i^C.^-'-^,  ^^ 

1.  That  Ramoth  Gilead  was  a  place  of  which  the  pos- 
session was  disputed  between  the  kings  of  Syria  and  of 
the  ten  tribes.     See  1  Kings  xxii.  3.  ^ 

2.  That  it  was  at  i^his  time  in  possession  of  Israel,  2 
Kings  ix.  14* 

3.  That  before  this  time  they  had  been  wont  to  strength- 
en fortified  towns,  in  this  country,  with  a  tower  of  pecu- 
liar strength  built  in  it,  to  which  the  inhabitants  fled  when 
they  apprehended  the  town  itself  not  tenable  against  an 
army,  or  no  longer  so.     See  Judges  ix.  51,  viii.  9. 

4.  As  in  the  earlier  ages  in  our  own  country  strong 
places  were  wont  to  be  built  on  eminences,  and  we  have 
reason  to  believe  were  so  in  many  other  countries,  so  wc 
find  mention  made  of  stairs,  for  going  up  to  or  coming 
down  from  the  city  of  David,  or  Zion,  the  strongest  part 
of  the  city  of  Jerusalem,  at  least  after  the  Temple.  Ne- 
hemiah  iii.  15. 

5.  There  can  be  nothing  then  improbable,  not  in  the 
least,  in  Mr.  King's  supposition,  that  this  ancient  strong 
.Jewish  tower  was  built  on  an  eminence,  and  entered  ■■ilo 
by  a  flight  of  steps. 

6.  Nor  in  the  supposition,  that  iu  such  towers,  those 
that  kept  a  city  against  dangerous  enemies,  as  here 
against  the  Syrians,  might  hold  their  councils,  in  which 


59i|  CONCERNING  THEIR  CITIES,  HOUSES,  &«. 

it  was  requisite  that  the  principal  captains  should  always; 
be  present.  ^ 

7.  The  inaugurating  or  proclaiming  their  kings  wa» 
wont  to  be  in  the  most  public  places,  and  with  solemn  mu- 
sic, 1  Kings  i.  40, 

8.  No  place  then  could  be  more  natural  than  somewhere 
upon,  or  on  the  top  of  the  steps  ascending  the  most  de- 
rated part  of  Ihe  castle  of  Ramolh  Gilead,  in  the  court  of 
which  numbers  of  people  may  naturally  be  thought  to  be 
assembled,  waiting  for  the  result  of  the  deliberations  of 
the  officers  of  the  army,  consulting  about  the  best  way  of 
defending  the  city  against  the  Syrians,  in  the  absence  of 
King  Joram. 

The  brevity  of  the  ancient  Jewish  histories  necessarily 
leaves  many  circumstances  unmentioned,  which,  at  that 
time,  might  very  well  be  passed  over  in  neglect,  and  which 
we  must  supply  in  the  best  manner  we  are  able. 

Here  it  may  not  be  improper  to  add  three  other  partic- 
\ilars,  in  which  the  accounts  of  sacred  history  agree  with 
Mr.  King's  account  of  our  old  English  castles,  and  may 
be  illustrated  by  it.  -fffjc  ni« 

The  one  is,  that  sometimes  there  was  in  an  old  Jewish 
tower  of  defence,  or  casile,  a  smaller  building,  consider- 
ably stronger  than  the  larger,  answerable  to  the  keeps  in 
our  ancient  English  castles.  So  Judges  is.  46,  in  the 
tower  of  Shechero,  belonging  to  that  town,  which  town 
was  itself  capable  of  making  some  resistance  to  an  enemy, 
was  a  very  strong  hold,  to  which  the  people  fled  when 
Ihey  gave  up  defending  the  tower. 

The  second  is,  that  this  strongest  inner  building,  though 
,comparalively  small,  might  have  several  rooms  in  it,  as 
the  tower  in  fact  appears  to  have  had,  in  which  Jehu  was 
silting  in  council.  fVhen  thou  contest  thither,  said  Elisha 
to  the  young  Prophet,  look  out  there  Jehu  the  son  of  Je- 
hoshaphul,  the  son  ofNimshi,  and  go  in,  and  make  him 
arise  up  from  among  his  brethren,  and  carry  him  to  an 
hiner  chamber,  or  cliaicber  in  a  chamber :  then  take  a  box 


CONCERNING  THEIR  CITIES,  HOUSES,  &c.  365 

ofoil  and  pour  it  on  his  head,  &c.  And  the  Prophet  did 
accordingly.*  So  the  Acfp  at  Connisborough  had  three 
rooms,  one  within  the  other. 

A  third  thing  is,  that  such  an  inner,  stronger  tower 
might  somehow  or  other  be  connected  with  one  or  more 
idols,  by  having  a  temple  within  it,  some  room  in  it  appro- 
priated to  idolatrous  worship;  or  might,  as  to  the  whole 
of  it,  be  committed  to  the  patronage  and  protection  of  such 
or  such  an  idol ;  or  might  be  used  for  the  safe  keeping  of 
the  precious  things  devoted  to  this  or  that  deity,  and  its 
treasures  :  so  Mr.  King  found  a  niche  in  each  of  the  two 
inner  rooms  of  the  keep  of  Connisborough  castle,  which 
seemed  to  him  to  be  designed  for  some  of  the  deities  of 
our  Saxon  forefathers ;  and  in  like  manner  the  strong 
hold  of  the  lower  of  Shechem  had  somehow  or  other  a 
relation  to  Baal  Berithjf  Judges  ix.  46.  When  all  the 
men  of  the  tower  of  Shechem  heard  thaty  that  the  city 
was  taken,  and  that  they  had  begun  to  demolish  it,  and 
appeared  resolved  entirely  to  ruin  it,  they  entered  into  an 
hold  of  the  house  of  the  god  Berith, 

These  are  circumstances  of  resemblance  that  engage 
attention. 

OBSERVATION  ItLII. 

OF    THEIR    WINTER    AND    SUMMER    HOUSES* 

But  to  come  to  a  conclusion ;  there  is  a  distinction 
made  in  the  Prophets  between  winter  and  summer  houses, 
Jer.  xxxvii.  22,  Amos  iii.  15. J 

The  Russian  princes  used  to  have  their  winter  and  sum- 
mer palaces  :  that  nation  having  had  many  of  (he  Eastern 
usages,  and  even  much  of  their  dress,  before  the  new  reg- 

•  2  Kings  ix.  2—11.  f  A  Syrian  idol. 

•"  '^''What  the  Prophets  say  here  may  be  understood  of  the  different 
npartments  in  the  same  house  ;  thus  in  vulgar  Arabic  they  say,  Jieet  al 
1  eheT,  beet  ni  enrei-r,  hr^t  at  dntty,  bert  al  terfj"    Dr.  UusscH's  MS.  note« 


366  CONCERNING  THEIR  CITIES,  HOUSES,  &c. 

ulations  of  Peter  the  Great ;  but  the  winter  and  the  sum- 
mer houses  of  the  Prophets  hardly  differed  so  much  from 
each  other  as  the  Russian,  I  imagine.  Probably  the  ac- 
count Dr.  Shaw  gives*  of  the  country  seats  about  Algiers, 
though  not  applied  by  him  to  the  illustration  of  these 
texts,  may  better  explain  this  affair.  «'  The  hills  and  val- 
lies  round  about  Algiers  are  all  over  beautified  with  gar- 
dens and  country  seats,  whither  the  inhabitants  of  better 
fashion  retire,  during  the  heat  of  the  summer  season. 
They  are  little  white  houses,  shaded  wilh  a  variety  of 
fruit  trees,  and  evergreens  j  which,  besides  the  shade  and 
retirement,  afford  a  gay  and  delightful  prospect  toward 
the  sea.  The  gardens  are  all  of  them  well  stocked  with 
melons,  fruit,  and  potherbs  of  all  kinds  ;  and,  what  is 
chiefly  regarded  in  these  hot  climates,  each  of  them  en- 
joys a  great  command  of  water,"f  &c. 

These  are  the  houses  used  for  retirement  from  the 
heat,  they  might  with  the  greatest  propriety  then  be  call- 
ed summer  houses.  They  are  built  in  the  open  country, 
and  are  small,  though  belonging  to  people  of  fashion,  and 
as  such  they  explain  in  the  most  simple  manner  the  words 
of  Amos,  /  mill  smite  the  winter  house,  the  palaces  of  the 
great  in  fortified  towns;  with  the  summer  house,  the  small 
houses  of  pleasure  used  in  the  summer,  to  which  any  ene- 
my can  have  access;  and  the  houses  of  ivory  shall  per- 
ish, those  remarkable  for  their  magnificence ;  and  the 
great  houses  shall  have  an  end,  sailh  thehoRo;  those 
that  are  distinguished  by  their  amplitude,  as  well  as  rich- 
ness, built  as  they  are  in  their  strongest  places,  yet  shall 
all  perish  like  their  country  seats. 

These  country  seats,  this  writer  tells  usjj  are  taken 
out  of  those  plains  of  the   Hadjoute  and   the  Metijiah. 

•  P.  34. 

■f  To  which  account  may  be  added,  from  Theveuot,  p.  275,  part  i,  that 
some  of  these  countiy  houses  about  Tunis  are  called  bardes,  from  a  Mo- 
reseo  word  which  signifies  cold,  because  of  the  fresh  air  about  them. 

4  Shaw,  p.  31- 


CONCERNING  THEIR  CITIES,  HOUSES,  &c.  36^ 

which  he  elsewhere  describes  ;  and  informs  us,  in  another 
place,*  (hat  the  locusts  of  1724  and  1725,  which  made 
their  first  appearance  toward  the  latter  end  of  March, 
and  were  prodigiously  increased  in  numbers  by  the  mid- 
dle of  April,  began  in  May  gradually  to  disappear,  and 
retired  into  the  Metijiah  and  other  adjacent  plains,  where 
they  deposited  their  eggs,  which  were  hatched  in  June. 
These  swarms  put  oflf  their  nympha  state,  he  tells  us,  in 
about  one  month,  and  soon  after  were  dispersed.  This 
retiring  in  May  into  the  Metijiah,  a  place  full  of  gardens, 
and  consequently  of  hedges  or  walls,  while  the  rest  of 
the  country,  used  for  feeding  of  cattle  and  as  arable  lands, 
is  all  open  without  any  enclosures  whatsoever,  in  which 
point  the  Holy  Land  does  and  did  resemble  it,  as  I  shall 
remark  in  a  succeeding  chapter,  may,  possibly,  explain 
the  words  of  the  Prophet  Nahum,  ch.  iii.  17,  Thy  cap - 
i'ainSf  are,  as  the  great  grasshoppers,  or  locusts,  as  the 
word  is  allowed  io  signify,  which  camp  in  the  hedges  in 
the  cold  day:  but  when  the  sun  ariseth,  they  flee  away, 
and  their  place  is  not  known  where  they  are. 

Mr.  Lowtfa,  in  his  comment,  supposes  the  fleeing  «way 
of  these  insects  signifies  their  shunning  the  heat  of  the  sun ; 
and  it  has  been  queried  whether  the  words  cold  day  do 
not  mean  the  night.f  Had  St.  Jerom,  in  whose  time  the 
locusts  once  visited  JudeaJ  in  such  numbers  as  to  cover 
the  country,  and  afterward  to  produce  a  pestilence  there, 
by  their  being  cast  up  on  the  shore  after  being  drowned 
in  the  sea,  made  such  curious  observations  as  a  modei*n 
philosopher  would  have  done,  this  place  had  been  perfect- 
ly explained  ;  and  a  fact  in  particular  ascertained,  of  which 
Dr.  Shaw  speaks  doubtingly,§  that  is,  whether  the  locusts 
appear  in  the  Holy  Ijand  at  the  same  time  of  the  year  a? 
in  Barbary,  which  is  the  spring.  What  Jerom  has  said, 
however,  may  correct  the  mistake  concerning  their  shun- 
ning the  heat  of  the  sun,  which  on  tho  contrary  cheers  them, 

•  Shaw,  p.  ISr.  }  Vide  Poll  Syn.in  loc 

-Vi'l'-  Cam    inJofI,  p.  J'  K  IV  I'^n 


CONCERNING  THEIR  CITIES.  HOUSES,  kc. 

and  is  necessary  to  enable  thera  to  use  (heir  wings  with 
liveliness  and  activity  ;*  a  fact  which  is  confirmed  by  le 
Bruyn.f 

Dr.  Shaw  speaks  doubtingly  of  the  time  in  which  the 
locusts  appear  in  the  Holy  Land,  and  St.  Jerom  is  silent 
upon  the  point ;  but  there  are  some  passages  in  the  Gesta 
Dei  per  Francos^  which  determine  that  they  appear 
there,  at  the  same  time  that  they  do  in  Barbary.  For 
Fulcherius  Carnotensis  tells  us  there,  that  an  infinite  num- 
ber of  locusts  came  from  Arabia,  in  the  year  1114,  to  the 
country  about  Jerusalem,  and  destroyed  the  corn  at  a 
terrible  rate  for  some  days,  in  the  months  of  April  and 
May  ;  and  that  an  infinite  multitude  of  them,  unusually 
destructive  appeared  there  in  May  1117.  We  may 
therefore  venture  to  consider  Dr.  Shaw's  account,  as  de- 
scriptive of  what  happened  from  time  to  time  in  the  Holy 
Land :  and  consequently  in  the  day  of  cold  cannot  mean 
the  night,  for,  besides  the  impropriety  of  the  expression, 
when  the  heat  of  the  day  comes  they  use  their  wings  in- 
deed, and  move  on,  but  others  take  their  place ;  whereas, 
the  Prophet  is  speaking  of  their  so  fleeing  away  that  their 
place  is  not  known  ;  which  can  scarcely  be  understood  of 
any  thing  less  than  their  total  disappearing. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  is  not  easy  to  suppose  that  the 
day  of  cold  means  the  depth  of  winter,  for  they  do  not 
appear  in  the  Holy  Land  then ;  and  though  in  Arabia, 
from  whence  Fulcherius  supposes  they  came,  there  are 
thickets  in  some  places,  and  it  has  been  imagined  that  the 
locusts  lay  concealed  in  them  during  the  winter,^  which 
may  be  thought  to  be  their  camping  in  the  hedges  in  the 
cold  day  ;  yet  it  is  to  be  observed,  that  the  word  trans- 
lated hedges  seems  rather  to  mean,  precisely  speaking, 

•  Deficientlbus  enim  pennulis,  et  contractis  frigore,  etiam  locusta  con- 
sidet  ;  et  considet  nOD  in  frugifera  arbore,  &  in  virentibus  foliis,  sed  in 
sepe,  sentibus  virgultisque  contexta  :  sive  in  maceria,  fortuito  hioc  inde 
lapide  composita.    Com.  Hier.  in  Nah.  c>  3.  t.  17. 

•j-  Tom.  ii.  p.  503,  504.       t  P.  424 — 427.      §  Voy.  le  Brttyn,  torn.  ii.  p.  505 


CONCERNING  THEIR  CITIES,  HOUSES,  &c.  369 

the  walls  of  a  garden,  than  living  fences,  and  consequentljr 
not  easilj  applicable  to  thickets. 

But  can  the  months  of  April  and  May  be  called  the 
day  of  cold  in  these  countries?  This  maj  be  thought  a 
considerable  difficulty.  But  when  I  observe,  that  the 
same  word  is  made  use  of  to  signify  that  grateful  cooling 
that  Eglon  sought,  Judges  iii.  20;  that  these  gardens  are 
the  places  to  which  the  people  of  the  Levant  retire  for 
cooling;  and  that  April  and  May,  the  time  in  which,  ac- 
cording to  Fulcherius  Carnotensis,  the  locusts  appear  in 
Palestine,  they,  at  Allepo,*  retire  to  their  gardens;  as 
also  that  the  locusts  are  brought  by  hot  winds,  which  may 
be  collected  from  Dr.  Shawf  and  le  Bruyn ;  J  I  am  led 
to  think  the  day  of  cold  should  rather  have  been  'trans- 
lated the  day  of  coolings  the  time  when  people  first  retire 
to  their  summer  houses,  or  country  seats.  And  when, 
says  the  Prophet,  the  sun  ariseth,  they  flee  away,  that  is, 
as  I  suppose  a  like  expression  in  James  i.  ll,§is  to  be 
understood,  when  the  summer  advances,  they  are  totally 
dispersed.  And  though  the  sea  is  now  supposed,))  by  the 
Eastern  people,  to  be  in  common  their  grave,  yet  that 
probably  not  being  known  to  be  the  fact,  in  the  time  of 
Nahum,  the  Prophet  says,  upon  occasion  of  their  disap- 
pearing, that  their  place  is  not  known  where  they  are. 

I  will  only  further  remark  on  this  subject,  that  agreea- 
bly to  their  being  called  by  the  Prophet  great  locusts,  it 
is  observed  by  some  naturalists,  that  those  locusts  that 
appear  in  such  swarms  are  larger  than  the  locusts  that  are 
seen  at  other  limes  :^  I  mention  this,  because  I  do  not 
remember  to  have  seen  any  thing  of  this  sort  in  the  com- 
mentators. 

•  Russell,  vol.  i.  p.  45,  &c.  t  P-  ^34,  and  18". 

\  Tom.  ii,  p.  152.  §  See  ch.  i.  ||  Shaw,  p.  188. 

%  Lemery  Diet,  des  Drogues  daus  I'art.  Locusta.  Those  who  are  best 
acquainted  with  the  Eastern  countries,  assure  us,  that  there  arc  several 
varieties  of  locusts.         I",  d  i  t. 

VOL.   I.  47 


CHAP.  IV. 

Delating  to  the  diet  of  the  inhabitants  of  the 
eastern  countries. 

OBSERVATION    I. 

OF    THEIR    BREAKFASTS    AT    ALEPPO. 

Dr.  Russell  tells  us  of  the  Eastern  people,  that  "as 
soon  as  they  get  up  in  the  morning,  they  breakfast  on 
fried  eggs,  cheese,  honey,  leban,"  &c.* 

We  are  not  to  suppose  that  when  Solomon  says,  Wo 
to  thee,  O  land,  when  thy  king  is  a  child,  and  thy  princes 
eat  in  the  morning,  Eccles.  x.  75,  that  he  means  absolute- 
ly all  kind  of  eating;  but  feasting,  the  indulging  themselves 
such  length  of  time  in  eating,  and  drinking  proportionably 
of  wine,  so  as  improperly  to  abridge  the  hours  that  should 
be  employed  in  affairs  of  government,  and  perhaps  to  dis- 
qualify themselves  for  a  cool  and  dispassionate  judgment 
of  matters. f 

This  is  confirmed  by  the  following  words  :  Blessed  art 
thou,  O  land,  when  thy  king  is  the  son  of  nobles,  and 
thy  princes  eat  in  due  season,  for  strength  and  not  for 
drunkenness,  ver.  17.  They  may  with  propriety  eat  in 
a  morning,  bread,  honey,  milk,  fruit,  which  in  summer  is 
a  common  breakfast  with  them, J  but  it  would  be  wrong 
then  to  drink  wine  as  freely  as  in  the  close  of  the   day. 

Wine  being  forbidden  the  Mohammedans  by  their  relig- 
ion, and  only  drank  by  the  more  licentious  among  them, 
in  a  more  private  manner,^  it  is  not  to  be  expected  to  ap- 

»  Vol.  i.  p.  166. 

■fSec  Prov.  xxxi.  4,  5,  -nliich  is  to  Le  understood  something  after  tbf> 
same  manner:  wine  certainly  not  being  absolutely  to  be  forbidden  to 
princes. 

i  Russell,  vol.  i.  p.  166.  §  Ibid  ISr.. 


RELATING  TO  THEIR  DIET,  kc.  371 

pear  lo  Iheir  breakfasts  ;  but  it  is  used  bj  others,  who 
are  not  under  such  restraints,  in  the  morning,  as  well  as 
in  their  other  repasts. 

So  Dr.  Chandler  tells  ns,  in  his  Travels  in  Asia  Minor  • 
"In  this  country,  on  account  of  the  heat,  it  is  usual  to 
rise  with  the  dawn.  About  daybreak  we  received  from 
the  French  consul,  a  Greek  with  a  respectable  beard,  a 
present  of  grapes,  the  clusters  large  and  rich,  with  other 
fruits,  all  fresh  gathered.  We  had,  besides,  bread  and 
coffee  for  breakfast,  and  good  wines,  particularly  one  sort, 
of  an  exquisite  flavour,  called  rauscadel."* 

If  they  drank  then  wine  at  all  in  a  morning,  it  ought  to 
be,  according  to  the  royal  Preacher,  in  small  quantities, 
for  strength,  not  for  drunkenness. 

The  Eastern  people,  Arabians  and  Turks  both,  are  ob- 
served to  eat  very  fast,  and,  in  common,  without  drink- 
ing;! but  when  they  feast,  and  use  wine,  they  begin 
with  fruit  and  sweetmeats  and  drinking  wine,  and  they 
sit  long  at  table  :J  Wo  to  the  land  whose  princes  so  eat 
in  a  morning,  eating  after  this  manner  a  great  variety  of 
things,  and  slowly,  as  they  do  when  feasting,  and  pro- 
longing the  lime  with  wine.  So  the  propliet  Isaiah,  in  like 
manner,  saySj  ch.  v.  11,  Wo  iinlo  them  that  rise  np  early 
in  the  mornin^j  that  they  may  follow  strong  drink,  that 
continue  until  night,  until  wine  inflame  them.  Such 
appears  to  be  the  view  of  Solomon  here. 

If  great  men  will  indulge  themselves  in  the  pleasures  of 
the  table  and  of  wine,  it  certainly  should  l)e  in  the  even- 
ing, when  public  business  is  finished. 

•  1'.'  18.  I  Egmont  and  IlryjiLiii,  vol.  ii.  ji.  C)5. 

4  Sir  John  Chardin,  tome  iii.  p.  86,  &c.  gives  an  nccount  of  sin  Easteri. 
feast,  at  vhich  he  was  present,  which  la&lnd  from  eleven  o'clock  in  the 
forenoon,  until  three  in  the  afternoon,  nfter  which  wns  a  magnificent  dcsci-t 

As  in  Mohammedan  co'.uitrics  there  are  no  places  of  puMic  cntcrtaii'- 
ment,  such  as  plays,  halls,  inasqiierad'-s.  ?tc.  the  haths  exccplcd,  tlicy  sii[< 
ply  the  lack  of  Ihese  vith  feasts  anil  entertainments,  the  woinen  with  the 
•women,  and  the  men  v  ith  the  men,  (hoosing  sometimes  the  -xvlwlc  day  fo* 
such  feasts,  and  at  other  times  the  whole,  nighl.  This  information  I  received 
fioma  very  intelligent  Moiiammedan,  frnni  (he  kingdonri  of  I'c^       I'.on  . 


372  RELATING  TO  THEIR  DIET,  kc. 

OBSERVATION  II. 

OF    THEIR    MEALS,    EARLY    RISING,    &C. 

( 

The  people  of  the  East  rise  early,  according  to  the 
preceding  Observation,  and  they  also  dine  very  early  ; 
and  trifling  as  this  observation  seems,  it  may,  possibly, 
be  of  some  use  in  explaining  a  passage  of  Scripture  which 
has  occasioned  a  good  deal  of  difficulty. 

"  As  soon  as  they  get  up  in  the  morning,  they  break- 
fast on  fried  eggs,  cheese,  honey,  leban,  &c.  About  elev- 
en o'clock  in  the  forenoon,  in  winter,  and  rather  earlier 
in  summer,  they  dine.  They  sup  early,  that  is,  about 
five  o'clock  in  the  winter,  and  six  in  the  summer,  in  much 
the  same  manner  that  they  dine  ;  and  in  winter,  as  they 
often  visit  one  another,  and  sit  up  late,  they  have  a  col- 
lation of  kennafy,*  or  other  sweet  dishes.  In  the  sum- 
mer, their  breakfast  commonly  consists  of  fruits ;  and  be- 
sides dinner  and  supper,  they  often,  within  the  compass 
of  the  day,  eat  watermelons,  cucumbers,  and  other  fruits, 
according  to  the  season." 

This  is  Dr.  Russell's  account,-)-  to  which  I  would  add, 
that  Dr.  Chandler,  in  his  Travels,  explains  what  is  meant 
by  rising  early,  for  he  tells  us,J  that  on  account  of  the 
heat,  it  is  usual  there  to  rise  with  the  dawn. 

They  dine  early  :  at  latest,  it  seems,  at  eleven,  and 
earlier  in  proportion  to  the  earliness  of  their  rising,  in 
summer;  perhaps  at  ten,  or  a  little  after:  their  supper, 
we  are  expressly  told,  is  an  hour  later  in  summer  than  in 
winter;  it  is  natural    to   suppose  the  like  difference  of  an 

*  A  mixture  of  flour  and  water,  so  prepared  as  to  have  the  appearance 
of  a  number  of  threads.  This  is  mixed  M-ith  butter  and  honey,  and  baked 
in  tlie  oven.  Ilusseli's  Description  of  Aleppo,  p.  lOr.  A  kind  of  vermi- 
ce'li,  I  should  suppose.     Harmer. 

1  dined  oiice  wiili  a  Turkish  captain  of  janisaries  from  Ismail,  at  whose 
table  a  dish  like  the  above  made  a  part  of  the  first  course  :  but  I  found  it 
a  very  unpalatable  kind  of  food.     It  was  very  strongly  acidulated.       Edit- 

t  Vol.  i  p.  if;6— 170.  i  Travels  in  Asia,  p.  IS. 


RELATING  TO  THEIR  DIET,  &c.  373 

hour  loo,   as  to  the  times  of  Iheir  dining  in  summer  and 
winter. 

And  strange  as  these  arrangements  may  seem  to  our 
modern  late  risers,  so  late  as  two  hundred  years  ago,  elev- 
en was  the  time  of  dining  in  England. 

But  to  return  to  the  East.  If  they  now  dine,  when 
they  rise  early,  between  ten  and  eleven,  the  ancient  Jews, 
if  their  customs  were,  in  this  respect,  like  those  of  the 
other  inhabitants  of  these  countries,  dined  at  the  like  early 
hour.  If  they  did,  then  the  first  time  of  eating  of  the 
paschal  sacrifices,  in  the  daytime,  after  eating  the  paschal 
lamb  in  the  night,  must  have  been  as  early  as  between  ten 
and  eleven  in  the  forenoon,  for  they  rose  very  early  then, 
as  early  as  in  the  heat  of  the  summer. 

Such  at  least,  is  the  account  that  is  given  us  by  Dr. 
Lightfoot,*  one  of  our  greatest  masters  in  Jewish  learn- 
ing, from  their  ancient  books.  "On  the  15th  day  of  the 
month,"  the  day  on  which  our  Lord  was  crucified,  "was 
an  holy  day,  the  first  day  of  the  feast,  wherein  they  made 
ready  their  chagigah,  with  which  they  feasted  together 
for  joy  of  the  feast.  That  is  worth  our  noting,!  every 
day  they  swept  the  ashes  off  the  altar  at  the  time  of  cock- 
crowing,  only  on  the  day  of  expiation  they  did  it  at  mid- 
night, and  on  the  three  feasts  they  did  it  after  the  first 
watch.  A  little  after,  in  the  three  feasts  when  infinite 
numbers  of  Israelites  assembled,  and  numberless  sacrifi. 
ees  were  offered,  they  swept  the  ashes  off"  the  altar,  just 
after  the  first  watch  ;  for  by  cockcrowing  the  court  was 
crowded  with  Israelites."  He  goes  on  to  observe  there, 
that  he  made  no  scruple  of  rendering  the  Hebrew  words 
n:}j  nN'ip  by  cockcrowing,  "although  in  the  very  place 
alleged  it  is  under  controversy,  whether  it  signifies  the 
cockcrowing,  or  the  proclamation  of  the  sagan,  or  ruler 
of  the  Temple,  viz.  that  proclamation  mentioned,  "  The 
sagan  saith  unto  them.  Go  and  see  whether  the  time  for 

*  AVoiks,  vol.  ii.  p.  618. 
•i  I'rnm  a  .Jewish  trfMftsc  cailoil  .Toma,  fo|.  2(V, 


374  llELATING  TO  TIIEIU  DIET,  ftc^ 

slajing  (he  sacrifices  be  at  band ;  if  it  were  time,  then  he 
that  was  sent  out  to  see,  returned  with  this  answer,  The 
day  begins  to  break,"  &c.  He  further  remarks,  that  let 
the  words  be  taken  which  way  they  will,  it  is  clear  that 
the  people  were  assembled  together  before  morning  light, 
and  the  sacrifices  preparing  for  slaughter,  by  being  cate- 
fully  examined,  &c. 

Rising  so  very  early,  as  according  to  Lighlfoot's  ac- 
count, the  Jewish  people  in  general  did,  and  more  espec- 
ially, we  must  suppose  the  zealots  did,  they  must  have 
wanted  their  dinner  by  ten  o'clock,  eating,  as  the  Eastern 
people  do,  their  first  collation  as  soon  as  they  rose ;  but 
what  they  then  lived  upon  were  their  peaceofFerings,  or 
the  chagigah,  as  they  termed  it,  for  those  sacrifices,  which 
are  called  by  St.  John  the  Passover,  ch.  xviii.  28,  being  a 
necessary  part  of  the  solemnity  termed  the  Passover, 
though  not  that  particular  sacrifice,  denominated  the  pas- 
chal lamb,  those  sacrifices,  I  say,  being  slain,  "  those  parts 
of  them  that  pertained  to  the  altar  or  to  the  priests  were 
given  to  them  ;  the  rest  of  the  beasts  was  shared  amongst 
the  owners  that  had  offered  it,  and  from  thence  proceeded 
their  feastings  together,  and  their  great  mirth  and  rejoic- 
ings, according  to  the  manner  of  that  festival."*' 

If  such  was  the  state  of  things,  they  must  have  wanted 
by  nine  in  thq  morning  to  finish  the  affair  of  our  Lord, 
that  they  might  prepare  for  dining  on  the  Passover  peace- 
offerings  which  had  been  killed  that  morning  very  early 
in  the  Temple.  It  is  evident,  from  Lev.  vii.  15,  16,  that 
the  flesh  of  some  peaceofferings  was  to  be  consumed  on 
the  day  in  which  they  were  sacrificed ;  as  to  the  rest, 
they  were  to  be  eaten  that  day,  and  might  be  eaten  also 
the  next,  but  no  further;  if  any  remained  to  the  morning 
of  the  third  day,  it  was  to  be  consumed  by  fire. 

The  rising  from  sleep  then,  on  the  day  in  which  our 
Lord  was  crucified,  was  early,  for  the  purpose  of  prepar- 
ing for  th^  s^olcmnllies  of  rejoicing  in  feasting  before  the 

*  In  tbe  same  page. 


RELATING  TO  THEIR  DIET,  &c.  375 

Lord  that  first  day  of  this  festival ;  and  also  of  preparing 
part  of  the  peaceoflferings  to  be  eaten  with  joy  on  the 
Sabbath,  which  happened  now  to  be  the  second  day  of 
the  Passover  solemnity,  in  which  they  were  to  dress  none 
of  their  provisions.  It  was  a  day  then  in  which  they  had 
much  to  do,  and  no  wonder  they  were  pressing  that  the 
business  of  our  Lord  might  be  despatched. 

In  the  case  of  St.  Paul,  more  than  forty  men  had  bound 
themselves  by  an  oath,  that  they  would  neither  eat  nor 
drink  until  they  had  killed  him,  Acts  xxiii.  21  ;  it  does  not 
appear  that  the  chief  men  of  the  Jews,  at  the  time  of  our 
Lord's  death,  had  bound  themselves  by  a  similar  oath  : 
but  it  is  natural  to  believe,  that  the  like  vehemence  of  tem- 
per disposes  them  to  despatch  that  affair,  before  they  sat 
down  to  feast  on  the  peaceofferings  of  the  day.* 

It  is  for  this  reason,  I  presume,  that  St.  John  tells  us  in 
his  Gospel,  ch.  xix.  14,  that  it  was  about  the  sixth  hour  of 
the  preparation  of  the  Passover,  when  Pilate  delivered 
Jesus  up  to  the  will  of  the  Jews  :  not,  I  apprehend,  the 
sixth  hour  of  that  day,  the  sixth  hour  after  the  rising  of 
the  sun  that  day,  but  the  sixth  hour  of  the  preparation  of 
the  Passover  peaceofferings,  which  began,  according  io 
Lightfoot,  from  the  time  of  cockcrowing;  and,  without 
controversy,  before  the  day  dawned,  and  might  therefore 
very  well  agree  with  St.  Mark's  account,f  of  its  being 
about  the  third  hour  of  the  day,  when  he  was  led  away 
to  be  crucified.  This  only  supposes  the  preparation  for 
the  sacrificing  these  peaceofferings  began  about  three 
o'clock  of  the  morning,  as  we  reckon  the  hours,  but,  if 
Lightfoot  be  right,  might  be  earlier,  since  cockcrowing  was 
the  whole  third  watch  of  the  night;  from  midnight  until 
about  three  in  the  morning. 

•  So  Bishop  Gardiner  was  so  anxious  to  bear  of  the  death  of  Ridlpy  and 
Latimer,  tliat  lie  refused  to  dine  until  he  heard  of  their  being  dead  ;  thougli 
no  mention  is  made  ir\  history,  I  think,  uf  liis  Iisvin!;  bonnd  liim-olf  bv 
'>ath,  not  to  do  ir 

t  CM.  TV.  cr. 


376  RELATING  TO  THEIR  DIET,  Jsc. 

This  appears  to  be  the  most  simple  and  natural  solution 
of  a  iJifliiMillj  which  has  perplexed  many  of  the  learned, 
arising  from  a  seeming  contradiction  between  St.  Mark 
and  St.  John,  as  to  the  time  of  the  beginning  of  our  Lord's 
crncifixion.  St.  Mark  had  said  nothing  of  this  day's  being 
a  day  of  preparation  before  the  Sabbath,  when  he  men- 
tions the  third  hour,  nor  for  several  verses  after,  he  must 
therefore  have  meant  the  hour  of  the  day;  but  St.  John 
mentions  the  preparation  of  (he  Passover  immediately  be- 
fore he  speaks  of  the  sixth  hour,  which  therefore  expresses 
as  naturally  the  sixth  hour  of  the  preparation,  if  not  more 
80,  as  the  hour  from  the  sun's  rising. 

Some  learned  men  have  supposed  St.  John  might  reck- 
on the  hours  after  the  Roman  manner,  and  so  the  sixth 
hour  would  mean  the  sixth  hour  from  midnight.  The 
learned  and  very  accurate  Dr.  Ward,  of  Gresham  college, 
was  of  this  opinion.  The  very  learned  and  ingenious 
Dr.  Lardner  would  not  allow  of  this,  as  no  notice  is  given 
of  such  a  way  of  reckoning  by  St.  John,  and  as  it  was  not 
practised  by  other  Jewish  writers,  who  wrote  for  the  in- 
formation of  the  Romans  and  Greeks,  as  well  as  John,  par- 
ticularly by  neither  of  the  other  three  Evangelists,  nor  by 
Josephus.*     What  Lardner  has  said,  and  which  I  have 

•  The  solution  of  Dr.  Ward,  though  a  person  of  exquisite  learning,  is 
the  more  unsatisfactory,  as  the  Romans  appear,  at  least  veiy  frequentlv,  if 
not  most  commonly,  to  have  reckoned  as  the  Jews  did,  from  the  sunrising 
for  the  hours  of  the  day,  as  they  did  from  its  setting  for  those  of  the  night, 
the  Romans  of  that  age,  as  appears  from  Horace,  Sat.  lib.  1,  sat.  5,  1.  23 — 
25,  where  the  dauphin  editor  refers  to  the  3d  satire  of  Persius  in  proof  of 
the  same  way  of  reckoning  ;  Suetonius  affords  us  several  proofs  of  it. 

The  passage  in  Horace,  referred  toby  Mr  Harmer,  is  the  following: 

quarta  vix  demura  cxponimur  hora. 

Ora  raauusque  tua  iRvimus  Feronia,  lymplu't. 
Millia  turn  pransi  triarepimus. — 
"  It  was  Xhc  fourth  hour  before  we  got  out  of  the  boat,  and  having  vashed 
our  hanfls  and  face    m  thy  fountain,  O  Feronia,    we  dined,  and  afterward 
crept  on  about  three  miles." 

The  Romans  certainly  computed  the  hours  from  sunrising,  allowing 
twelve  to  the  day,  and  the  like  number  to  the  night,  \vhich  were  longer  or 
shorter,  according  to  the  different  seasons  of  the  year.  It  is  plain,  there- 
fore, that  at  the  time  of  the  equinox,  when  the  sun  rises  at  six,  ihe'iv  fourth 
hour  must  have  answered  to  our  ten  o'clock.  See  Dr.  Watson  on  the  plac^ 
Eui  T. 


RELATING  TO  THEIR  DIET,  &o.  St7 

just  now  been  repeating,  appears,  it  must  be  owned,  very 
strong;  but  I  beg  leave  to  observe,  that  when  St.  John 
says  it  was  about  the  sixth  hour,  when  the  woman  of  Sa- 
maria came  to  draw  water  at  Jacofs  well,*  that  circum- 
stance seems  somewhat  to  favour  Ward's  hypothesis, 
though  it  is  by  no  means  decisive.  For  I  have  elsewhere 
shown,  that  the  Eastern  women  are  said,  by  those  that 
have  travelled  in  those  countries,  to  fetch  water  only  in 
the  evening  or  the  morning ;  to  which  may  be  added,  that 
the  Scriptures  themselves  speak  of  the  evening  as  the  time 
women  were  wont  to  go  out  to  draw  water.  Gen.  xxiv.  11. 
And  he  made  his  camels  to  kneel  down  without  the  cily, 
by  a  well  of  water,  at  tlie  time  of  ihe  evening,  even  the 
lime  that  women  go  out  to  draw  water.  According  to 
this,  the  time  of  our  Lord's  being  at  Jacob's  well  should 
be  in  the  evening,  and  it  being  said  to  be  then  about  the 
sixth  hour,  St.  John  must  have  reckoned,  not  according 
to  the  Jewish,  but  the  Roman  manner  of  reckoning,  un- 
less the  woman  of  Samaria  went  at  a  time  unusual  both  in 
ancient  and  modern  times.f  It  might,  possibly,  however 
happen. 

I  mention  this  circumstance,  because  I  do  not  recol- 
lect that  either  of  these  gentlemen  have  taken  notice  of  it 
in  arguing  this  matter,  and  I  have  neither  of  them  at  hand 
to  consult  on  this  occasion,  but  I  will  not  pretend  to 
decide  the  point.  It  is  not  at  all  necessary,  I  apprehend, 
to  solve  the  seeming  contrariety,  between  St.  Mark 
and  St.  John,  as  to  the  time  of  fastening  our  Lord  to  the 
cross. 

The  other  passages  of  St.  John's  Gospel,  in  which  men- 
tion is  made  of  the  hours,  will  in  no  wise  be  thought,  I  be- 
lieve, to  determine,  whether  he  made  use  of  the  Roman 
or  Jewish  method  of  reckoning  them. 

I  have  since  observed  in  the  collections  of  Wolfius,'. 
that  the  explanation  which  I  have  given  has  been  propos- 

*  Cli.  iv.  f),  7.  \  I  shall  have  occasion  to  take  notice  of  this 

( ircumstance  of  the  time  of  her  coming  to  the  wen,  undjer  another  iu-ticle. 

t  Toroe  i.  p.  {)70. 
VOL.    I.  /IR 


378  IIELATJNG  TO  THEIR  DIET,  &c. 

ed  heretofore  to  the  world  j  my  reader,  however,  has  it 
here  as  it  presented  itself  to  my  mind,  in  thinking  over  the 
several  circumstances  1  have  been  reciting,  and  with  such 
additional  considerations  and  variations,  as  perhaps,  may 
not  be  displeasing. 

OBSERVATION  III. 

OF    THE    DIFFERENT    ARTICLES    USED  FOR    POOD. 

r^BERE  is  such  a  remarkable  difference  between  the  ac- 
count the  sacred  historians  give  us,  of  the  provisions  that 
were  brought  to  David  when  he  fled  from  Absalom,  and 
by  the  Israelites  that  came  to  make  him  king  at  Hebron, 
as  seems  to  me  to  deserve  a  little  more  attention  than  is 
wont  to  be  bestowed  upon  it :  perhaps  a  more  exact  com- 
paring them  together  may  afford  some  growing  light  into 
the  affairs  of  those  times,  especially  if  we  join  some  mod- 
ern acts  of  civility,  which  travellers  have  related,  to  these 
of  more  ancient  date. 

In  1  Chron.  xii.  40,  mention  is  made  of  the  things  that 
were  carried  to  David  at  Hebron ;  in  2  Sam.  xvii.  28,  29 
of  those  which  he  received  on  the  other  side  Jordan. 
The  lists  follow : 


1  Chron.  xii.  40. 


Figs  ;  Rai-sins  ;  "Wine  ;  Oil ; 
Oxen  ;  Sheep  ;  Flour  or 
meal.* 


2  Sam.  xvii.  28,  29. 


Sheep  ;    Flour    or    meal  ; 
Beds  ;     Bowls  ;     Earthen 
vessels  ;  Wheat ;   Barley  ; 
Something  that  was  parch- 
ed; Beans  j  Lentiles  ;  But- 
ter ;  Honey,  and  something 
i  belonging  to  kine. 
The  reader  may  suppose  that    this  catalogue     from 
Chronicles  is  incomplete,  as  our  translators  have  mention- 
ed bread  and  meat.     But   the  Septuagint    seems   to  be 

*  I  say  flour  or  ivicul,  for  thougli  our  translators  render  it  meal  in  Chroni- 
cles, AuAJlour  in  Samuel,  the  original  word  is  the  same  in  both  places,  am\ 
»hou.ld  not  have  been  different  in  our  version. 


RELA-TING  TO  THEIR  DIET,  &c.  3f ^ 

more  just,  which  understands  the  second  word  as  signifying 
food  in  general,*  and  certainly  it  does  not  signify  jiesh  in 
particular ;  and  the  first  as  meaning  not  a  noun  substantive, 
bread,  but  a  pronoun  and  preposition  to  them  :  the  He- 
brew words  signifying  these  two  very  different  things 
being  so  alike,  as  easily  to  be  mistaken  one  for  the  other. 
"  They  brought  them  on  asses,  &c.  victuals  ;  meal,  cakes 
of  figs,"  &c. 

However,  let  the  list  of  particulars  be  drawn  up  one 
way  or  the  other,  they  are  so  different,  though  the  cases 
in  general  are  so  much  alike,  that  one  would  imagine  the 
variation  must  be  occasioned,  partly  by  the  difference  of 
the  seasons,  the  one  in  the  spring,  the  other  in  autumn  ;  and 
partly  by  the  different  circumstances  in  which  the  at- 
tendants found  themselves ;  in  one  case,  extremely  desti- 
tute and  tired  ;  in  the  other,  at  ease,  and  even  in  a  state 
of  joy.  The  difference  can  hardly  be  attributed  to  dif- 
fering customs,  or  difference  of  productions,  in  the  two 
districts  from  which  the  provisions  were  brought:  the 
neighbourhood  of  Hebron,  and  from  thence  all  along  to  Is- 
sachar,  Zebuhin  and  Naphtali,  in  the  one  case,  and  the 
country  beyond  Jordan  in  the  other. 

To  these  two  catalogues  it  may  not  be  improper  to  sub- 
join a  third,  taken  from  the  Sieur  Roland  Frejus's  relation 
of  a  voyage  from  the  coast  of  Africa  into  an  inland  part  of 
Mauritania,!  in  which  he  has  given  us  an  account  of  the 
provisions  presented  to  him  by  the  Moors  and  Arabs  in  a 
journey  of  eight  days  ;  after  which  I  shall  make  some  ob- 
servations on  the  whole.  The  particulars,  as  to  Frejus, 
were  as  follow. 

•  It  is  very  likaly  that  the  present  word  Dfl?  lechein  bread,  sUnxi  orig- 
inally in  the  text  DH;  iahem  to  them  :  so  it  was  in  the  copy  whence 
the  Septuagint  took  their  text,  t^tgor  xutoi;,  they  brought  unto  them.  As 
the  n  and  the  H  are  so  nearly  similar  D^'  tp  ihetp,  might  be  readily 
mistaken  for  CDO?  lechem  bread.        Edit. 

f  His  journey  from  tlie  coast  into  the  country  was  in  the  lattcf  etid  of 
April,  AD.  1666. 


2S80  RELATINC  TO  THEIR  DIET,  *tc 

'    is       Partridges,      -     -     -  p.  25. 

Other  fowls,    -     -     - .  p.  25,  Sf,  51. 

Milk,        -       -     '     -  p.  26,  32,  47,  53. 

Butter,     ....  p.  26,  37,  47,  51,53. 

Bread,      .       -     -     -  p.  26,  47,  53. 

Eggs,       ....  p.  32,  47,  53, 

Beans,      -       -     -     -  p.  32,  37. 

New  bread,     -     .    .  p.  32,  37. 

Cheese,   -       -    -     .  p.  37^47. 

Cream,    -       .     -     -  p.  37. 

Boiled  salads,*  -     -  p.  37. 

Couple  of  fat  sheep,  p.  47,  51. 

KaisinS)  -       .    -     -  p.  47. 

Beans,  according  to  Dr.  Shaw,  are  usually  full  podded 
the  latter  end  of  February,  or  beginning  of  March,  and 
continue  during  the  whole  spring ;  which,  after  they  are 
boiled  and  stewed  with  oil  and  garlick,  are  the  principal 
food  of  persons  of  all  distinctions. f  Frejus's  voyage  was, 
accordingly,  in  April,  who  was  twice  presented  with  beans. 
David's  flight  from  Absalom  appears,  for  the  same  reason, 
to  have  been  in  the  spring.  The  lentiles  sent  to  David 
are  another  proof. 

After  Frejus  arrived  at  the  capital  city,  the  Moorish 
King  sent  him,  we  are  told,;]:  along  with  other  things,  two 
great  vessels  of  butter,  two  of  honey,  and  two  of  sweet 
oil  ;  not  one  word  of  oil,  when  travelling  among  the  coun. 
ivy  people,  but  butter  is  daily  mentioned.  This  observa- 
tion tends  to  make  us  less  surprised  that  butter  only  is 
spoken  of  as  given  to  David  in  the  land  beyond  Jordan, 
and  not  oil:  it  being  spring  time,  butter  was  most  plenti- 
ful, and  perhaps  most  pleasant. 

Oil,  and^g-s,  as  well  as  raisinSf  were  brought  to  He- 
bron, from  the  country  people  of  Galilee,  when  Israel  as- 

•  What  the  word  is  in  the  French  I  know  not,  the  term  used  in  the  En 
gUsh  is  odd  ,  wliat  he  meant  is  not  ilistinctly  known,  but  perhaps  some- 
thing eaten  as  a  suhul  by  the  Frcncli,  but  boiled  iu  the  East,  was  the  thin.^ 
intemled. 

t  P.  I40-  i  P.  70. 


RELATING  TO  THEIR  DIET,  &o.  3|(| 

sembled  to  recognise  David  as  king  over  the  whole  nation ; 
is  it  not  then  probable,  that  that  assembly  was  held  in  au- 
tumn, when  all  these  things  had  been  newlj  gathered  in, 
and  were  in  the  greatest  plenty  ? 

If  the  solemn  reception  of  David  as  their  king,  by  all 
Israel,  was  in  autumn,  then  Saul  must  have  been  slain  in 
the  spring,  since  his  death  was  seven  years  and  a  half 
before,  according  to  1  Chron.  iii.  4,  2  Samuel  ii.  11, 
chap.  V.  5. 

Is  it  not  reasonable  to  suppose,  that  the  ancient  Jews, 
in  general,  dried  their  grapes,  their  figs,  their  dates,  &c.  in 
such  quantities,  as  to  last  them  through  the  winter  only, 
till  the  spring  food  came  to  hand,  and  were  not,  in  com- 
mon,* solicitous  to  preserve  them  all  the  year  round,  in 
order  to  have  a  more  grateful  variety  of  food  ?  Such  seems 
to  be,  at  present,  the  inattention  of  the  country  people  of 
Mauritania  to  the  luxury  of  continual  variety,  since  we 
meet  with  no  account  of  figs  or  dates  in  the  whole  eight 
days'  journey  of  Captain  Frejus,  and  but  once  of  raisins, 
all  which,  however,  might  be  cured  in  those  countries  in 
sufficient  numbers,  and  would  keep  very  well  from  one  au- 
tumn to  another. 

Wine,  which  is  wanted,  and  was  used  at  all  times  of  the 
year,  was  sent,  according  to  Josephus,f  who  must  be  very 
inaccurate  and  loose  in  his  account  of  the  reception  of 
David  at  Mahanaim,  or  the  copies  of  the  history  of  Samuel 
more  large  than  those  we  have  at  present ;  or,  which  is 
the  most  probable  supposition,  that  many  of  the  earthen 
vessels  which  are  mentioned  were  understood  by  him  to 
have  been  filled  with  wine,  and  not  some  empty  pieces  of 
pottery  only.  Wine,  it  is  well  known,  is  kept  in  the 
East,  to  this  day,  in  jars  of  earth.  Ziba,  it  is  certain, 
thought  wine  highly  proper  to  be  presented  in  such  a  sea- 

*  Some  doubtless  were    preserved  ;  so  Ziba  presented    King   IJavid  a(. 
this  time  with  an  hundred  bunches  of  raisins,  2  Sam.  xvi.  1  ;  and  David  fur- 
nished hiaiself  with    them   and  witli  figs,  wJien,  in  the  spring,  he  was  en 
gaged  in  continnal  expeditions  of  a  warlike  nature.  1  Saro.  xxx.  I". 

t  Antiq.  lib.  7,  cap.  9,  §  8. 


882  RELATING  TO  THEIR  DIE  l",  Jscc. 

SOU,  and  though  Barzlliai  and  his  associates  had  not  like 
selfish  ends  to  answer  as  Zibahad  in  view,  when  with  great 
adulation  he  said,  The  asses  be  for  the  king^s  household  to 
ride  on,  and  the  bread  and  summer  fruit  for  the  young 
men  to  eaf,  and  the  wine,  that  such  as  be  faint  in  the  JVil- 
derness  may  drink,  2  Sam.  xvi.  2  ;  yet  they  could  not  be 
insensible  that  wine  must  be  extren>ely  wanted  by  people 
faint  and  weary,  nor  is  it  to  be  supposed  they  were  with- 
out large  quantities  of  it  by  them. 

There  is  so  much  stress  laid  by  the  prophetic  historian 
on  the  people's  being  weary  and  thirsty  in  the  Wilder- 
ness, 2  Sam.  xvii.  29 ;  and  its  being  expressly  represent- 
ed by  him  as  if  Barzillai  and  his  associates  were  particu- 
larly attentive  to  these  circumstajices,  For  they  said,  the 
people  are  hungry,  and  weary  and  thirsty  in  the  Wildev- 
ness,  that  it  should  seem  refreshments  for  the  thirsty  were 
meant  by  one  or  more  articles  in  this  catalogue,  or  that  it 
is  imperfect :  and  that  if  the  word  beds  is  to  be  understood 
of  things  few  in  number,  and  those  of  the  most  honorable 
kind,  as  Josephus  and  the  Septuagint  understood  the 
term,*  it  should  seem  some  other  accommodations  for  rest 
were  provided,  of  a  meaner  sort,  whether  distinctly  men- 
tioned, or  not. 

The  nature  of  some  of  the  things  carried  to  David,  when 
beyond  Jordan,  seems  to  intimate,  that  that  prince,  and 
the  people  with  him,  were  then  in  some  sort  encamped  in 
the  Wilderness,  David  not  being  at  that  time  sufficiently 
assured  of  the  fidelity  of  that  part  of  his  country,  to  ven- 
ture into  the  cities,  at  least  it  was  expected  it  would  be  so. 
They  would  not  otherwise  have  carried  him  beds,  we  have 
reason  to  think,  but  the  people  of  Mahanaim  would  have 
accommodated  him  in  their  own  houses.  But  this  appears 
not  to  have  lasted  long.  He  and  Ms  people  were  before 
the  bailie  in  Mahanaim. 

*  The  Alexaiulrian  copy  of  the  Septuagint  has  (Tsx*  KBIT*?  nctt  a^fi^itumvu 
ten  couches  and  sofas,  or  carpets  for  reposivs^  on,  ornaraented  with  cover- 
iiig^  o(  tapestrij,  the  figures  of  which  were  equally  evident  on  both  sides.' 
A</*/T«;rt;,  tapfs  iitunmqiif  viUo^nn.    Trom.  Concord.        Edit, 


RELATING  TO  THEIR  DIET,  &c. 

The  reason  why  such  things  were  not  carried  to  He- 
bron, when  David  was  recognised  king  over  all  the  tribes, 
seems  to  have  been,  that  the  ancient  Israelites,*  like  the 
present  Bedouin  Arabs,f  made  no  difficulty,  on  occasion 
of  sleeping  on  the  ground,  wrapj>ed  up  in  their  outward 
garments, J  and  their  faces  covered  from  the  night  air,  and 
Israel  were  then  in  a  state  of  ease  and  joy  ;  but  the  peo- 
ple along  with  David  were  apprehended  to  be  greatly  fa- 
tigued, and  worn  out  with  a  hurrying  journey.^ 

One  observation  here  we  can  hardly  avoid  making,  and 
that  is  the  striking  difference  between  both  the  Jewish 
catalogues,  and  account  given  of  the  provision  presented 
to  Frejus,  as  to  fowls  and  eggs.  We  find  no  fowls  or 
eggs  in  the  first ;  in  the  other,  very  frequently.  Are  we 
to  suppose  there  were  few  or  no  tame  fowls  kept  among 
the  Jews  in  those  early  times?  few  or  no  eggs  eaten  but 
what  they  might  accidentally  find  in  the  nests  of  birds  or 
wildfowl  ?  Whatever  might  be  the  cause  of  it,  it  is  certain 
there  is  a  great  silence  as  to  these  matters  in  the  Old  Tes- 
tament ;  whereas  eggs  and  fowls  are  extremely  common 
now  in  all  parts  of  the  Levant. H  But  I  observe,  that  nei- 
ther are  kids  mentioned  in  either  the  ancient  or  modern 
catalogues,  though  very  common  in  both  ages. 

To  finish  this  article  I  would  observe,  that  the  men- 
tion of  honey  in  2  Sam.  xvii,  in  no  wise  weakens  the  sup- 
position that  this  flight  of  David  was  in  the  spring,  though 
our  beehives  are  seldom  taken  up  till  the  end  of  summer, 
since  Dr.  Russell  describes  the  country  about  Aleppo  as 

•  3  Sam.  xviii.  S,  4.      f  Voy.dans  laPalcstiae,  par  tie  la  Roquc,  p.  176. 
i  Exod.  xxii,  27,  Deut.  xxiv.  13. 

§  So,  according  to  Biddulph,  some  of  their  Eastern  friends  at  Damascus* 
Jews  and  Greeks,  furnished  the  English  merchants,  irilh  whom  he  travel- 
led to  Jerusalem,  with  beds  as  well  as  provliions,  as  supposing  their  wea. 
ried  bodies  stood  in  need  of  such  refreshments.  Oxford  Collect,  of  Voy. 
and  Trav.  vol.  i.  p.  809. 

II  They  were  the  chief  eatables  that  D;-.  Rifthard  Chandler  and  his  conv. 
pauions  were  able  to  p"^»iire,  iafli'"''  t-i''  '-  I"  A.";ia  Minor,  as  appears  in 
many  placrs 


;J84  RELATING  TO  niEIR  DIET,  &c. 

covered  with  flowers  in  the  spring,  but  in  a  manner  whol- 
ly unadorned  with  them  in  the  summer,  the  ground  being 
then  almost  entirely  bare  and  parched  up.  When  flow- 
ers and  the  blossoms  of  the  trees  ceased,  it  must  have 
been  no  improper  time  to  take  the  honey  away.  No 
wonder  then  that  it  appears  in  the  catalogue  of  spring 
[MTOvision,  and  is  not  mentioned  in  1  Chron.  xii. 

OBSERVATION  IV. 

FLESH  MEAT  SPARINGLY  USED    IN  THE  EAST. 

Though  flesh  meat  is  not  wont  to  be  eaten  by  these 
nations  so  frequently,  as  with  us  in  the  West,  or  in  such 
quantities,  yet  people  of  rank,  who  often  have  it  in  their 
repasts,  are  fond  of  it,  and  even  those  in  lower  life,  when 
it  can  be  procured.* 

Our  translation  then  does  not  express  the  spirit  of  the 
Mosaic  precept,  relating  to  the  super-inducing  a  second 
wife  in  the  lifetime  of  the  first,  Exod.  xxi.  10.  Her 
J'oodt  her  raiment,  and  her  duty  of  marriage,  shall  he 
not  diminisli ;  in  the  original  it  is,  her  flesh,  her  raiment, 
&c.  meaning  that  he  should  not  only  aflbrd  her  a  suflicient 
quantity  of  food  as  before,  but  of  the  same  quality.  The 
feeding  her  with  bread,  with  herbs,  with  milk,  &c.  in 
quantitiies  not  only  sufficient  to  maintain  life,  but  as  much 
as  numbers  of  poor  people  contented  themselves  with 
would  not  do,  if  he  took  away  the  flesh,  and  others  of  the 
more  agreeable  articles  of  food  he  had  before  been  wont 
to  allow  her. 

Accordingly,  the  Septuagint  translates  that  word  by 
the  Greek  term  t<»  ^iovrot,  which  means  food  suitable  to 
the  man's  rank  and  circumstances. 

•  This  appears  by  the  longing  of  Israel  for  it  in  the  Wilderness,  Numb,  xi, 
4,  and  the  regret  they  expressed  at  the  remembrance  of  the  fleshpots  of 
Egypt,  Exod.  xvi.  3.  So  de  Tott  tells  us,  part  2,  p.  51,  that  the  Crim  Tar- 
tars do  not  habitually  use  meat,  though  they  are  very  fond  of  it,  from  spar 
ingness,  or,  as  he  styles  it,  avarice. 


RELATING  TO  THEIR  DIET,  &c.  385 

^  OBSERVATION  V. 

DIFFERENT  KINDS  OF    HIGHLY  SEASONED  DISHES. 

OtTR  version  of  Gen.  xxvii*  4,  T,  9,  14,  17,  31,  may  be 
presumed  to  have  given  us  the  true  sense  there  of  the 
word  translated  savouryt  though  it  is  undoubtedly  of  a 
more  large  and  less  determinate  signification. 

That  it  is  of  a  more  large  signification,  is  evident  from 
hence,  that  a  kindred  word  expresses  the  tasting  of /ioney» 
1  Sam.  xiv.  43 ;  and  the  taste  of  tnanna,  )«?hich  tasted  like 
fresh  oil.  Numb.  xi.  8,  and  like  wafers  made  with  honey^ 
Exod.  xvi.  31.  These  two  last  passages  are  easily  rec- 
onciled, though  honey  and  fresh  oil  are  by  no  means 
like  each  other  in  taste,  when  we  consider  the  cakes  of 
the  ancients  were  frequently  a  composition  of  honey,  and 
oil,  and  flour ;  consequently,  in  tasting  like  one  of  these 
wafers  or  thin  cakes,  it  might  be  said  to  resemble  the 
taste  of  both,  of  oil  mingled  with  honey. 

The  word  C3"'D;rcDD  matd  mmeem,  then  translated  savou- 
ry,  in  a  confined  sense,  signifies  generally  whatever  is 
gustful,  or  pleasing  to  the  taste,  whether  by  being  salt 
and  spicy,  which  the  English  word  savoury  means,  or 
pleasant  by  its  sweetness  ;  or  by  being  acidulated. 

However  it  is  very  probable,  that  in  this  account  of 
what  Isaac  desired,  it  means  savoury,  properly  speaking, 
since  though  one  might  imagine,  that  in  so  hot  a  climate, 
and  among  people  wont  to  observe  so  much  abstemious- 
ness in  their  diet,  food  highly  seasoned  should  not  be  in 
request ;  yet  the  contrary  is  known  to  be  fact. 

Almost  all  the  dishes  of  the  people  of  Aleppo,  Dr.  Rus- 
sell informs  us,  "  are  either  greasy  with  fat,or  butter,  pret  <y 
highseasoned  with  salt  and  spices  ;  many  of  them  made  sour 
with  verjuice,  pomegranate,  or  lemon  juice;  and  onions 
and  garlick  often  complete  the  seasoning.'**' 

•  Vol.  i.  p.  115.    Dr.  Shaw  gives  us  a  similar  account,  p.  231. 
VOL.  I.  49 


386  RELATING  TO  THEIR  DIET,  &c. 

As  it  was  soniefhing  of  the  venison  kind  Isaac  desiredj 
it  is  very  probable,  the  dish  he  wished  for  was  of  the 
savoury  sort. 

Some  of  their  dishes  of  meat,  however,  are  of  a  sweet 
nature.  "  A  whole  lamb,  stuflfed  with  rice,  almondsy 
raisins,  pistaches,  &c.  and  stewed,  is  a  favourite  dish  with 
them."* 

It  was  very  just  then,  in  our  translators,  to  render  thiff 
word  by  a  more  extensive  term  in  Prov.  xxiii.  3,  When 
thou  sittest  to  eat  with  a  ruler,  consider  diligently  rvhat 
is  before  thee,  v.  1.  Be  not  desirous  of  his  dainties,  for 
they  are  deceitful  meat,  v.  3.  It  is  translated  in  much  the 
same  manner  in  v.  6,  dainty  meats. 

I  would  observe  further,  as  to  this  subject,  that  there 
is  a  great  propriety  in  Solomon's  describing  these  dainty 
meats  as  very  much  appropriated  to  the  tables  of  rulers, 
or  a  few  others  of  the  great,  since  the  food  of  the  common 
people  of  Aleppo,  a  large  and  rich  commercial  city,  is 
very  simple  and  plain  ;  for  Russell  tells  us, "  bread,  dibbs,' 
the  juice  of  grapes  thickened  to  the  consistence  of  honey, 
leban,  coagulated  sour  milk,  butter,  rice,  and  a  very  little 
mutton,  make  the  chief  of  their  food  in  winter;  as  rice, 
bread,  cheese,  and  fruits, -do  in  the  summer."f 

De  la  Roque  gives  much  the  same  account  of  the  man- 
ner of  living  of  the  Arabs,  whose  way  of  life  very  much 
resembles  that  of  the  patriarchs  :  "  roast  meat  being  al- 
most peculiar  to  the  tables  of  their  emirs  or  princes,  and 
lambs  or  kids  stewed  whole,  and  stuffed  with  bread,  flour, 
mutton  fat,  raisins,  salt,  pepper,  saffron,  mint,  and  other 
aromatic  herbs. "J 

I  would  only  add  further,  with  respect  to  the  meat  Isaac 
desired,  that  perhaps  his  desiring  Esau  to  take  his  bow 
and  arrows,  and  to  kill  him  some  venison  ;  an  antelope,  or 
some  such  wild  animal,  when  a  kid  from  his  own  flock 
would,  as  appears  from  the  event,  have  done  as  well,  might 

*  Riuseil,  vol.  i.  p.  172,  fcc,  f  Vol.  i.  p.  174 

t  Voy.  dans  ia  Pal.  ch.  14,  p.  i97. 


RELATING  TO  THEIU  DIET,  &cc. 

as  much  arise  from  the  sparingness  natural  follfrd^e  fliat 
live  this  kind  of  life,  together  with  the  pleasure  he  pro- 
posed to  himself  from  Ihis  testimony  of  filial  affection  from 
a  beloved  son,  as  from  the  recollection  of  some  peculiar 
poignant  flavour  he  had  formerly  perceived  in  eating  the 
flesh  of  wild  animal$<,  though  now  his  organs  of  taste  were 
so  much  impaired  as  not  to  perceive  the  difference.  So 
Dr.  Shaw  observes,  that  "the  Arabs  rarely  diminish  their 
flocks,  by  using  them  for  food,  but  live  chiefly  upon  bread, 
milk,  butter,  dates,  or  what  they  receive  in  exchange  for 
their  wool."* 


OBSERVATION   VI. 

HOW    THE    FLESH    OF    SACRIFICES  WAS    DISPOSED    OF. 

The  longest  time  allowed,  in  Lev.  vii.  15,  18,  for  the 
eating  the  flesh  of  any  of  the  Mosaic  sacrifices,  was  the 
day  after  that  in  which  they  were  killed,  the  eating  it  on 
the  third  day  is  declared  to  be  an  abomination.  This 
precept  may  be  thought  to  have  been  unnecessary  in  so 
warm  a  climate,  where  we  may  suppose  by  the  third  day 
it  might  be  ready  to  putrefy,  and  there  could  be  no  great 
occasion  to  forbid  the  Jews  to  eat  decayed  meat.  But 
we  are  to  remember  that  drying  meat  is  often  practised 
in  those  hot  countries;  is  sometimes  practised  as  to  flesh 
killed  with  a  religious  intention:  and,  on  account  of  this 
management,  the  keeping  the  flesh  of  their  sacrifices  to  the 
third  day  might  be  forbidden. 

Every  Mohammedan,  that  goes  in  pilgrimage  to  Mec- 
ca, is  obliged,  on  a  certain  day,  and  at  a  certain  place 
near  there,  to  sacritice  a  sheep.f  He  may,  if  he  pleases, 
sacrifice  more,;|:  but  he  is  under  an  obligation  to  kill 
one.  Some  of  the  flesh  of  these  sheep  they  give  to 
their  friends;  some  to  the  ragged  poor  who  come  out 
of  Mecca,  and  the  adjacent  country ;  and  the  rest  they 

•  P.  169.  XF'ms,]f.  l-iO.  iD'HTbelot,  p.  62,  art  .Adh» 


388  RELATING  TO  THEIR  DIET,  &c. 

eat  themselves.  But  they  are  not  lioiited  to  any  time  for 
eating  this  sacred  flesh,  that  I  have  any  where  observed  j 
that  it  appears  by  the  collections  of  d'Herbelot,  that  they 
often  dry  a  good  deal  of  this  kind  of  flesh.  Dhoul- 
hegiah,  the  last  month  of  the  Arabic  year,  is,  according  to 
d*Herbelot,  almost  entirely  consecrated  to  the  perform- 
ing certain  solemnities  and  ceremonies,  which  are  practised 
at  Mecca,  and  the  neighbouring  mountain  of  Arafah.  The 
tenth  day,  in  particular,  is  called  the  Festival  of  the  Vic- 
iim,  or  Sacrifice,  there  being  few  Mohammedans  who  do 
rot  sacrifice  one  or  more  sheep  that  day.=^  The  11th, 
12th,  and  13th  days  are  called  Taschrie,  in  which  they 
dry  the  flesh  of  these  victims.f 

I  have  elsewhere  given  an  account  of  the  Eastern  way 
of  drying  their  meat,  and  that  it  is  said  that  so  dried  it  will 
keep  two  years.  Consequently,  this  sacred  flesh  may  be 
frequently  eaten  in  the  deserts  in  their  return,  and  even 
presented  to  their  friends  residing  in  their  several  coun- 
tries, as  a  religious  curiosity,  as  Pitts  tells  us,  is  done  with 
the  water  of  the  Sacred  Well  in  the  temple  of  Mecca, 
■which,  though  distributed  in  very  small  portions,  on  their 
return,  is  received  with  great  care,  and  abundance  of 
thanks. 

The  Mecca  pilgrimage,  and  many  of  its  ceremonies,  are 
very  well  known  to  be  of  great  antiquity,  far  more  ancient 
than  the  time  of  Mohammed,  and  to  be  the  remains  of 
Arab  heathenism.  Something  of  the  same  kind  might 
obtain  as  early  as  the  time  of  Moses,  and  be  the  occasion 
of  the  prohibition.  It  would  not  have  suited  the  genius 
of  the  Mosaic  dispensation,  to  have  allowed  them  to  have 
dried  the  flesh  of  their  peaceofferings,  whether  for  thanks- 
giving, in  consequence  of  a  vow,  or  merely  voluntary,  and 
have  afterward  eaten  the  flesh  very  commonly  in  a  spar- 
ing manner,  or  communicated  only  some  small  portion  of 
it  to  their  particular  friends :  their  peaceofferings,  were  to 

'  Pitts,  in  tlie  p^ge  just  cited.  t  P-  351,  art  Dhoulhcgiah 


RELATING  TO  THEIR  DIET,  ko.  389 

be  eaten,  on  the  contrary,  with  festivity,  communicated 
to  their  friends  with  liberality,  and  bestowed  on  the  poor 
with  great  generosity,  that  they  might  partake  with  them 
on  these  sacred  repasts  with  joy  before  the  Lord.*  To 
answer  these  views,  it  became  requisite  to  eat  this  flesh 
while  it  was  fresh  ;  and  these  considerations  are  sufficient 
to  account  for  the  precepts,  without  recurring  to  those 
moral  and  evangelical  reasons  that  are  assigned  by  the 
learned  and  devout  Mr.  Ainsworth  for  the  command.  How 
benevolent  and  cheerful  the  design  of  this  institution  ! 

OBSERVATION  VII. 

VINEGAR    AND    OIL    TAKEN    WITH    BREAD. 

When  Boaz  is  represented  as  having  provided  vinegar 
for  his  reapers,  into  which  they  might  dip  their  bread,f 
and  kindly  invited  Ruth  to  share  with  them  in  the  repast, 
we  are  not  to  understand  it  of  simple  vinegar,  but  vinegar 
mingled  with  a  small  portion  of  oil,  if  modern  managements 
in  the  Levant  be  allowed  to  be  the  most  natural  comment 
on  those  of  antiquity. 

For  even  the  Algerines  indulge  their  miserable  cap- 
tives with  a  small  portion  of  oil  to  the  vinegar  they  allow 
them  with  their  bread,  according  to  the  account  Pitts  gives 
of  the  treatment  he  and  his  companions  received  from 
them,  of  which  he  complains  with  some  asperity. 

I  have  elsewhere  cited  this  passage,  but  without  coH' 
sidering  it,  as  giving  a  full  view  of  what  the  sacred  histo- 
rian is  to  be  understood,  I  apprehend,  to  have  expressed 
in  short,  and  therefore  shall  here  only  say,  that  Pitts's  al- 
lowance was  nothing  but  a  little  vinegar,  about  five  or  six 
spoonsful,  half  a  spoonful  of  oil,  with  a  small  quantity  of 
black  biscuit,  and  a  pint  of  water  a  day,  together  with  a 
few  olives. J 

•  Deut.  xvi.  11.  t  Rath  ii.  14.  i  P.  C. 


a90  RELAit!?G  to  f  HEtU  Dmt;  lie. 

What  (he  qualify  of  (he  bread  was,  (uat  (he  reapers  ioT 
Boaz  had,  may  be  uncer(ain,  but  there  is  all  imaginable 
reason  to  suppose  the  vinegar,  into  which  they  dipped  if, 
was  made  more  grateful  by  the  addition  of  oil. 


OBSERVATION  VIII. 

OF    FURNISHING    TRAVELLERS    WITH  WATER    TO  DRINK. 

When  our  Lord  said,  Whosoever  shall  give  you  a  cup  of 
ivater  to  drink,  in  my  name,  because  ye  belong  to  Christ, 
verily,!  say  unto  you,  he  shall  not  lose  his  reward,*  the 
general  thought  is  plain  to  every  reader ;  that  no  service 
performed  to  a  disciple  of  Christ,  out  of  love  to  his  Mas- 
ter, though  comparatively  small,  should  pass  away  unre- 
warded; but  we,  in  these  more  temperate  climates,  are 
sometimes  ready  to  think  that  the  instance  our  Lord 
mentions,  is  of  so  very  trifling  a  nature,  that  it  appears  al- 
most ludicrous.  But  it  certainly  would  not  appear  so  now 
to  an  inhabitant  of  the  East,  nor  did  it  then,  we  have  rea- 
son to  believe,  appear  in  that  light  to  them,  to  whom  he 
immediately  made  that  declaration.  A  cup  of  cold  water  is 
to  them  a  refreshment  not  unworthy  of  notice,  though 
there  are  now,  and  were  then  refreshments  that  might 
be  given  of  a  very  superior  kind. 

The  furnishing  travellers  with  water,  is,  at  this  time, 
thought  a  matter  of  such  consideration,  that  many  of  the 
Eastern  people  have  been  at  considerable  expense  to  pro- 
cure passengers  that  refreshment. 

*'  The  reader,  as  we  proceed,"  says  Dr.  Chandler,f 
"  will  find  frequent  mention  of  fountains.  Their  number 
is  owing  to  the  nature  of  the  country  and  the  climate. 
The  soil  parched  and  thirsty,  demands  moisture  to  aid 
vegetation  ;  and  a  cloudless  sun,  which  inflames  the  air, 
requires  for  the  people  the  verdure,  shade  and  coolness, 
its  agreeable  attendants.  •  Hence  they  occur  not  only  in 

*  Mark  ix.  4h  f  Travels  in  Asia  Minor,  p.  20, 


RELATING  TO  THEIR  DIET,  kc  3^1 

the  towns  and  villages,  but  in  the  fields  and  gardens,  and 
by  the  sides  of  the  roads  and  of  the  beaten  tracks  on  the 
mountains.  Many  of  them  are  the  useful  donations  of  hu- 
mane person^,  while  living;  or  have  been  bequeathed  as 
legacies  on  their  decease.  The  Turks  esteem  the  erect- 
ing them  as  meritorious,  and  seldom  go  away,  after  per- 
forming their  ablutions  or  drinking,  without  gratefully 
blessing  the  name  and  memory  of  the  founder." 

Then,  after  observing,  that  the  method  used  by  the  an- 
cients of  obtaining  the  necessary  supplies  of  water  still 
prevails,  which  he  describes  as  done  by  pipes,  or  paved 
channels^  he  goes  on,  "  When  arrived  at  the  destined  spot, 
it  is  received  by  a  cistern  with  vent ;  and  the  waste  cur- 
rent passes  below  from  another  cistern,  often  an  ancient 
sarcophagus.  It  is  common  to  find  a  cup  of  tin  or  iron 
hanging  near,  by  a  chain  ;  or  a  wooden  scoop  with  an 
handle,  placed  in  a  niche  in  the  wall.  The  front  is  of 
stone  or  marble ;  and  in  some,  painted  and  decorated 
with  gilding,  and  with  an  inscription  in  Turkish  characters 
in  renevo." 

The  blessing  the  name  and  memory  of  the  builder  of  one 
of  these  fountains  shows,  that  a  cup  of  water  is,  in  those 
countries,  by  no  means  a  despicable  thing  ;  there  are 
however,  refreshments  that  might  be  given  of  a  much  su. 
perior  quality.  Such  is  milk;  so  when  Sisera  asked  Jael 
for  a  little  water  to  drink,  because  he  was  thirsty,  she 
opened  a  bottle  of  milk,  and  gave  him  drink.  Judges  iv.  19. 
So  the  mother  of  an  Eastern  prince,  among  other  instruc- 
tions, bade  him  Give  strong  drink  to  them  that  were 
ready  to  perish,  and  wine  to  those  that  were  of  heavy 
hearts,  Prov.  xxxi.  6. 

The  giving  a  thirsty  traveller  also  a  watermelon,  such 
as  grow  in  great  quantities  on  Mount  Carmel,  would  be  a 
much  nobler  refreshment  than  a  cup  of  water.  The  inhabit, 
ants,  Egmont  and  Heyman  inform  up,^^  speaking  of  Mount 
(Jarmel,  "chiefly  employ  themselves  in  improving  their 

•  Vol  ii.  r^ »",  I  i- 


392  RELATING  TO  THEIR  DIET,  8cc. 

gardens,  where  they  have  among  other  fruits,  CKcellent 
melons,  and  pasteques,  which,  in  goodness  and  laste,  are 
not  at  all  inferior  to  those  of  Naples  and  the  West  Indies. 
The  latter  are  called,  in  America,  watermelons,  and  verj 
properly,  consisting  of  little  else  than  a  rind  and  delicious 
water.  The  pulp  of  some  is  reddish,  especially  that  part 
nearest  the  centre  of  the  fruit,  where  they  have  also 
small  seeds,  the  surface  of  which  is  blackish  or  reddish, 
and  beneath  it  a  white,  soft,  and  palatable  substance,  and 
from  whence  a  kind  of  oil  is  expressed,  of  great  use  in 
colds,  inflammations,  and  cutaneous  disorders.  The  mel- 
ons which  have  a  white  pulp,  are  also  of  a  very  agreeable 
taste ;  but  not  so  much  esteemed  as  the  other,  probably 
more  from  prepossessions  than  any  solid  reason.  Both, 
however,  may  supply  the  place  of  drink,  as  they  dissolve 
in  the  mouth,  quench  the  thirst,  and  are  of  a  cooling  qualify- 

If  from  the  Lesser  Asia  we  pass  into  Egypt,  and  the 
southern  part  of  Arabia,  under  the  conduct  of  Niebuhr 
we  shall  find  the  providing  water  for  the  thirsty  is  con. 
sidered  as  a  work  of  considerable  benevolence,  "There 
were  upon  this  mountain,"  he  says,  "  three  madsjils,  or 
little  reservoirs,  which  are  always  kept  full  of  fine  fresh 
water,  for  the  use  of  passengers.  These  reservoirs,  which 
are  about  two  feet  and  a  half  square,  and  from  five  to  sev- 
en feet  high,  are  round  or  pointed  at  the  top,  of  mason's 
work,  having  only  a  small  opening  in  one  of  the  sides,  by 
which  they  pour  water  into  them.  Sometimes  we  find, 
near  these  places  of  Arab  refreshment,  a  piece  of  a  gourd 
shell,  or  a  little  scoop  of  wood.  However,  instead  of 
trusting  to  such  conveniences,  travellers  would  do  better 
to  carry  a  cup  with  them,  and  even  to  have  with  them,  in 
a  long  journey,  a  bardac,  or  vessel  for  water."*  He  of- 
ten speaks  of  these  erections  in  Arabia. 

As  to  Egypt,  he  says,  "  Among  the  public  buildings  of 
Kahira,  those  houses  ought  to  be  reckoned,  where  they 
daily  give  water  gratis   to  all  passengers  that  desire  it 

•  Voy.  tome  i.  p.  274. 


RELATING  TO  THEIR  DIET,  kc.  393 

Some  of  these  houses  make  a  very  handsome  appearance ; 
and  those  whose  business  it  is  to  wait  on  passengers  are 
to  have  some  vessels  of  copper,  curiously  tinned,  and 
filled  with  water,  always  ready  on  the  window  next  the 
street."* 

*  This  is  a  further  confirmation  of  the  justness  of  coe*^' 
sidering  the  giving  a  cup  of  cold  water  as  a  benevolent 
action  of  some  moment,  though  it  is  supposed  by  our 
Lord  to  be  of  the  meaner  kind.f 

OBSERVATION  IX. 

DIFFERENT     KINDS     OF    VEGETABLES     ON     WHICH     THE 
POORER    SORT    FEED. 

Job  speaks  of  some  poor  people,  so  severely  oppressed 
with  poverty,  that  they  wanted  bread  ;  and  fed  on  the 
wild  herbs  of  the  wilderness,  particularly,  according  to 
our  translation,  on  mallows.  Biddulph  saw  poverty  pro- 
ducing the  like  effect  in  his  travels. 

It  will  be  sufScient  to  set  down  the  two  passages,  the 
latter  illustrating  the  former,  at  least  as  to  one  point. 

IVho  cut  up  mallows  by  the  bushes,  and  juniper  roots 
for  their  meat.     Job  xxx.  4. 

So  Biddulph  says,  he  "  saw  many  poor  people  gather- 
ing mallows,  and  three  leaved  grass,  and  asked  them  what 
they  did  with  it ;  and  they  answered,  that  it  was  ail  their 

•  P.  97. 

j"  I  maj  be  allowed  to  add  here,  from  the  most  authentic  -oformation, 
that  in  India  the  Hindoos  go  sometimes  a  great  way  to  fetch  water,  and 
then  boil  it  that  it  may  not  be  hurtful  to  travellers  who  are  hot;  and  after 
this  stand  from  morning  till  night  in  some  great  road  where  there  is  nei- 
ther pit  nor  rivulet,  and  offer  it  in  honor  of  their  gods  to  be  drunk  by  the 
passengers.  This  necesssiry  work  of  charity  in  these  hot  countries  seems 
to  have  been  practised  among  the  more  pious  and  humane  Jews  ;  and  our 
Lord  assures  them,  that  if  they  do  this  in  his  name,  they  shall  not  lose 
their  reward.  This  one  circumstance  of  the  Hindoos  offering  the  water 
to  the  fatigued  passengers  in  honor  of  th^ir  t^ocls,  is  a  better  illustration  of 
our  Lohd's  words,  than  all  the  collections  of  Mr.  Harmer  on  the  subject. 
See  the  Asiatic  Misccltaoy,  vol.  ii-  p.  142,  4to.  Calcutta.  17S0.  Euir. 
VOL.    I.  .'">0 


394  RELA.T1NG  TO  THEIR  DIET,  &c. 

food ;  and  that  they  boiled  if,  and  did  eat  it.  Then  ire 
took  pity  on  them,  and  gave  them  breads  which  they  re- 
ceived very  joyfully,  and  blessed  God  that  there  was 
bread  in  the  world."*  This  was  in  Syria,  not  far  from 
Aleppo. 

Whether  mallows  was  one  of  the  herbs  Job  precisely 
meant  may  be  doubted  ;  it  appears,  however,  to  be  a  spe- 
cies of  herb  actually  used  as  food  by  the  very  poor  peo- 
ple of  the  East.  And  at  the  same  time  the  joy  they  ex- 
pressed, upon  having  a  little  bread  given,  shows  that  it 
was  not  any  guslfulness  in  those  herbs  which  they  eat, 
which  caused  them  to  gather  them,  or  the  force  of  long 
established  habit,  but  the  extremity  of  want. 

As  Biddnlph  went  to  Jerusalem,  some  time  before  the 
translation  of  the  Bible  was  undertaken  by  the  command 
of  King  James  I.  the  observation  he  made,  of  the  poor 
people's  eating  mallows  in  Syria,  might  engage  those 
learned  men  so  to  render  the  word  used  in  that  passage  of 
the  book  of  Job.    ■  -iv^f'Ht'** '^^^"■>*■■'*^^■^•!^^»i>^^'^M  **#?t^''^ii(,=*** 

I  have  elsewhere  taken  Bolice  of  the  different  opiniona 
of  the  learned,  concerning  the  tree  or  shrub  which  our 
translators  supposed  was  the  juniper;  and  I  expressed 
my  regret  that  the  knowledge  of  the  natural  history  of 
the  East  is  so  imperfect :  and  as  I  have  since  remarked 
an  article  in  d^Herbelot's  Bibliotheque  Orientale,  which 
probably  refers  to  this  tree,  I  would  here  set  it  down, 
though  unhappily  the  particular  species  of  the  tree  is  not 
thereby  expressly  determined.  Ijh/    • 

**  Gadha  and  gadhat,  a  sort  of  tree,  nearly  resembling 
the  tamarisk,  which  grows  in  the  sandy  deserts.  Cam- 
els are  very  fond  of  its  leaves,  which,  nevertheless,  are  apt 
to  give  them  the  gripes.  The  wood  of  these  trees  is  ex- 
tremely proper  to  burn  into  charcoal,  which  has  the  prop- 
erty of  long  preserving  fire  :  on  which  account  it  is  carried 
into  their  cities,  where  there  is  a  great  sale  for  them. 

*  Collection  of  Voy.  and  Trav.  from  the  library  of  the  Earl  of  Oxfoi-dr 

p.  807. 


RELATING  TO  THEIR  DIET,  kc.  39fv 

'  '^'Wolves  very  commonly  lurk  among  these  treesj 
SThich  has  given  rise  to  a  common  saying  among  the  Arabs, 
when  they  would  prevent  their  camels  eating  the  leaves 
-of  these  frees.,  the  wolf  is  near  the  gadha."* 

This  does  not  determ'ne,  whether  this  tree  is  a  spe- 
cies of  the  juniper,  or  not ;  but  It  should  seem  to  be  meant 
in  the  Scriptures  by  that  word  which  our  version  renders 
juniper.  It  grows  in  the  deserts  ;  its  coals  long  retain 
fire;  and  it  grows  to  a  size  capable  of  shading  a  person 
from  the  heat,  since  it  is  called  a  tree. 

The  other  properties  that  are  mentioned,  are  its  afford- 
ing food  to  camels,  of  which  they  are  very  fond,  but  which 
is  apt  to  gripe  them ;  and  the  frequent  concealment  of 
wolves  among  trees  of  this  species  ;  may  make  it  still 
more  easy,  for  those  that  travel  with  camels  through  the 
Eastern  deserts,  to  determine  whether  the  tree  that  an- 
swers this  description  of  d'Herbelot,  and  that  of  the 
Scriptures,  is  the  juniper,  or  not.  And  I  would  hope,  it 
may  not  be  long  before  some  curious  traveller  may  ascer- 
lain  this  matter. 

•  I  take  no  notice,  here,  of  another  supposed  property  of 
this  tree,  according  to  our  version  of  Job  xxx.  4,  in 
which  several  other  translations  concur,  and  that  is,  that 
its  roots  are  capable  of  being  made  use  of  for  food.  For 
I  much  question  whether  the  roots  of  the  juniper,  or  of 
any  other  tree  in  those  deserts,  can  afford  nourishment 
to  the  human  body,  on  the  one  hand ;  and  on  the  other,  I 
would  observe,  that  the  interlineary  translation  of  Arias 
Montanus  supposes,  that  the  meaning  of  the  passage  is, 
that  they  used  the  roots  of  the  tree  in  question  for  fuel. 
And  certainly  the  same  Hebrew  letters  may  as  well  sig- 
nify the  one  as  the  other  ;  that  they  used  those  roots  for 
warming  themselves,  as  for  bread.\ 

The  reason,   I  presume,  that  has  inclined  so  many  to 
understand  the  word  as   our  translators  have  done,  has 

•  P.  356. 

j-  on  7  iechem  bread,  being  put   for  DH/  lahem  to  t/iemselves,  att  hflf 
l>cen  supposed  in  a  preccdiag  iastanoe,  page  379,  note.    Ebii  . 


996  RELATING  TO  THEIR  DIET,  &e. 

been,  in  parf,  the  not  knowing  how  far  the  roofs  of  this 
tree  of  the  deserts  might  be  used  for  food,  by  these  miser- 
able outcasts  from  society  ;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  that 
they  could  not  want  fire  in  those  sultry  deserts,  for  the 
purpose  of  warming  themselves.  But  as  Irwin  complains 
not  unfrequenfly  of  the  cold  of  the  night,  and  sometimes 
of  the  day,  in  the  deserts  on  the  west  side  of  the  Red  Sea ; 
so,  in  an  appendix  to  the  History  of  the  Revolt  of  AH 
Bey,  we  find  the  Arabs  that  attended  the  author  of  that 
journal,  through  the  deserts  that  lay  between  Aleppo  and 
Bagdad,  were  considerably  incommoded  with  the  cold. 

ittul&nt  if  it  w.ere  so  with  the  poor  wretches  Job  mentions, 
whv,  it  may  be  asked,  are  tfie  roots  of  the  juniper  men- 
tioned? Do  we  not  find  in  the  Travels  of  RauwoIflT 
published  by  Mr.  Ray,  that  in  the  Wilderness,  on  the 
Eastern  side  of  the  Tigris,  they  went  out  of  doors,  and 
gathered  dry  boughs,  and  stalks  of  herbs,  to  dress  some 
food  with,  without  mention  of  roots  of  any  kind  of  tree? 

^and  does  not  Thevenot  mention  the  gathering  broom  for 
boiling  their  coffee,  and  warming  themselves,  in  the  Wil- 
derness, going  from  Cairo  to  Mount  Sinai?  Why  then 
any  mention  of  juniper  as  used  for  fuel?  I  would  answer, 
that  much  slighter  fuel  would  do  for  travellers  that  were 
clothed,  and  wanted  only  to  stay  a  little  while  to  take  some 
refreshment,  than  would  do  for  poor  starving  and  almost 
naked  creatures,  whose  continual  abode  was  in  the  deserts. 
At  the  same  time,  it  should  seem,  in  the  most  destitute 
state,  without  proper  tools  to  cut  down  trees  there,  so  that 
the  most  substantial,  lasting,  and  comfortable  fuel  they 
could  procure,  might  well  be  the  roots  and  refuse  part  of 
those  gadha  trees,  whatever  that  word  in  d'Herbelot 
means,  which  were  cut  down  to  be  made  into  charcoal, 
for  ibe  use  of  those  towns  that  lay  on  the  borders  of  that 
desert  into  which  the  outcasts  mentioned  by  Job  retired. 
To  depend  on  the  chips,  and  castaway  wood  that  others 
cut,  to  warm  themselves  in  their  naked  state,  must  be  great 
wretchedness. 


14ELA.TING  TO  THEIR  DIET,  &o.  ^J 

OBSERVATION  X. 

WHAT    IS    GENERALLY    EATEN    WITH    BREAD      TO     MAKE 
IT    PALATABLE. 

Dr.  Pococke,  in  describing  his  journej  1o  Jerusalem 
after  his  landing  in  Joppa,  tells  us,*  he  was  conveyed  to 
an  encampment  of  Arabs,  who  entertained  him  as  well  as 
they  could;  making  him  cakes,  and  bringing  him  fine  oil  of 
olives,  in  which  they  usually  dip  their  bread. 

When  he  says  usually,  he  means,  1  presume,  when  they 
are  more  elegantly  regaled;  for  the  Eastern  people  often 
make  use  of  bread  with  nothing  more  than  salt,  or  some 
such  trifling  addition,  such  as  summersavory  dried  and 
powdered,  which,  mixed  with  the  salt,  is  eaten' by  the 
people  of  Aleppo,  as  a  relisher  of  their  breadi  according 
to  the  account  of  Dr.  Russell.f  The  Septuagint  transla- 
'  tion  of  Job  vi.  6,  seems  to  refer  to  the  same  practice,  when 
it  renders  the  first  part  of  that  verse,  will  bread  be  eaten 
without  salt  ?  E<  ^^wdjjo-gTaj  cc^to?  ouhvj  *Aof. 

It  is  to  the  same  sort  of  frugality  also,  I  suppose,  Solo- 
mon refers,  when  he  says,  he  that  lovelh  wine  and  oil, 
shall  not  be  rich.^  One  would  have  thought  the  usiirg 
oil  with  their  bread,  which  answers  to  our  bread  and  but- 
ter, should  not  be  thought  extravagant ;  but  this  account 
of  Dr.  Russell  shows  it  is  a  piece  of  delicateness  in  the 
East,  (he  expense  of  which  they  frequently  avoid. 

I  would  here  produce  a  passage  from  St.  Jerom,  in  which 
this  is  meniioned,  as  well  as  a  number  of  other  curious 
circumstances.  This  father  exclaiming,  in  a  lelter  to  Ne- 
potion,  against  some  who  abundantly  compensated  their 
seeming  austerities   by  a  real    delicacy  in  their  way  of 

•  Vol.  ii.  p.  5. 

f  Vol.  i.  p.  17C.  On  this  point  Dr.  Russell  observes,  MS.  note,  that  bread 
in  the  East  is  very  often  eaten  by  itself,  and  is  far  from  being  insipid  lik^ 
the  white  of  an  egg.        Edit. 

\  Prov.  xxi- 17. 


3»S  RELATING  TO  TlIElll  DIKr,  &c. 

living,  cries  out,  in  words  (oo  spirited  to  be  literally  trans- 
lated, to  this  purpose  :  "  Let  your  fasts  be  pure,  chaste, 
simple,  moderate,  and  not  superstitious.  What  signifies 
it  to  eat  no  oil,  if  you  seek  those  kinds  of  food  that  are 
procured  with  trouble  and  ditiiculty,  dried  figs,  spice,  nuts, 
and  the  fruit  of  palm  trees,  fine  flour,  honey,  pistachios? 
All  the  arts  of  gardening  are  exhausted,*  that  we  may 
carry  our  mortifications  to  such  a  height  as  not  to  eat 
common  bread.  I  hear  there  are  some  too  that,  in  con- 
tradiction to  nature,  drink  no  water,  as  well  as  eat  no 
bread;  but  they  can  swallow  little  delicate  draughts,  com- 
posed of  Ihe  juices  of  divers  herbs,  and  that  not  in  a  cup, 
but  a  shell.  The  severest  fast  is  the  confining  one's  self 
to  bread  and  water.  But  because  this  is  not  ostentatious, 
as  we  all  in  common  live  on  bread  and  water,  this  is  reck- 
oned too  vulgar  for  such  strictness  of  fasting  as  they  pre- 
tend to.'* 

Nepotion  resided  in  Italy,  as  appears  from  the  next 
epistle;  but  the  writer  of  this  letter  lived  at  Bethlehem, 
and  was  blaming  iu  it  some  monkish  pretenders  to  austeri- 
ty in  those  Eastern  countries.  The  frequent  making  use 
of  oil  with  bread,  is  what  is  referred  to  here,  which  as  a 
delicacy,  this  austere  generation  would  not  be  guilty  of, 
though  it  seems  they  would  make  use  of  cakes  made  of  the 
finest  flour  mingled  with  honey,  which  Moses  speaks  of, 
Lev.  ii.  11  ;  or  composed  of  almonds,  pistachio  nuts,  &c. 
for  so,  I  suppose,  the  words  are  to  be  understood  :  which 
niceties,  perhaps,  were  not  so  old  as  the  days  of  Moses, 
but  certainly  as  ancient  as  the  days  of  Jerom.     What  he 

•  Vol.  i.  p.  16.  ed.  Basil  1565.  Sinttibi  pura,  casta,  simplicia,  moderata, 
et  con  snperstitiosa  jejunia.  Quid  prodest  oleo  non  vesci,  et  tnolestias  quasr 
dam  difficultatcsque  ciborum  qujerere,  carycas,  piper,  nuces,  palm&rum 
fructus,  similam,  mel,  pistacia  ?  Tota  hortorum  cultura  vexatur,  ut  cibario 
non  vescamui'  pane.  Audio  prseterea  quosdam  contra  rerum  horainuroquc 
iiaturam,  aquam  non  bibere,  nee  vesci  pane,  sad  sorbiliunculas  delicatas,  e( 

contrita  olera,  betaruraque  succum  non  calico  sorbere,  sed  concha For- 

tissimam  jejunium  est  aqua  et  panis.  Sed  quia  gloriam  non  habet,  et  om- 
nes  pane  et  aqua  vivinius,  quasi  publicum  et  comtnune,  jejunium  non  pU' 
tatur. 


RELATING  TO  THEIR  DIET,  &c. 

says  of  their  drink  deserves  remark  ;  but  that  belongs  to 
another  place. 

To  keep  to  the  consideration  of  the  custom  of  dipping 
their  bread  in  oil,  it  is  further  to  be  remarked,  that  they 
make  use  not  only  of  what  is  pressed  from  the  olive,  ia 
their  food,  but  also  of  less  agreeable  kinds  of  oil,  for  the 
sake  of  cheapness,  as  both  Russell  and  Maillet  assure  us« 
The  last  in  particular  tells  us,  that  the  poor  of  Egypt  use, 
out  of  necessity,  a  sort  of  oil  drawn  from  a  plant  called 
there  Cirika  ;  and  the  Jews,  out  of  sparingness,  make  use  of 
it  in  the  preparation  of  many  of  their  meats,  which  must 
make,  he  observes,  a  detestable  cookery.*  To  these 
meaner  kinds  of  oil,  Rabshakeh  seems  to  refer,  2  Kings 
xviii.  32,  when  he  promised  the  Jews  a  land  that  should 
produce  the  best  oil,  that  of  olives.  a  >  ^.ff«^ 

They  make  use  of  oil,  and  such  like  things,  with  their 
bread,  but  in  difTerent  ways.  So  Dr.  Shaw  observes,  that 
they  break  their  bread,  or  cakes  into  little  bits,  and  dip 
them  in  their  oil  and  vinegar,  robb,  hatted  milk,  honey ,f 
&c.  and  Dr.  Pococke,  in  the  passage  cited  at  the  begin- 
ning of  this  observation,  takes  notice  of  the  Arabs  dipping 
their  bread  in  a  syrup  called  becmes,  which  is  made  by 
boiling  the  juice  of  grapes  to  a  due  consistence  ;J  but  in 
another  place  of  the  same  volume,§  describing  his  sitting 
down  to  eat  with  one  of  the  Egyptian  sheiks,  he  tells  us, 
that  a  large  wooden  bowl  was  placed  before  them,  filled 
with  their  thin  cakes,  broken  into  very  small  pieces,  and 
a  syrup  mixed  with  it.|| 

But  the  most  extraordinary  way  of  eating  things  of  this 
kind  together,  is  that,  I  think,  described  by  Thevenot,^ 
in  his  account  of  the  Mafrouca  of  the  Arabs,  which,  he 

»  Un  ragoat  detestable.  Let  9,  p.  1! .  f  P.  232, 

tYol.  i.  p.  58.  §P.  tI3. 

jj  This  is  not  unfrequcnt  in  tiie  IVesC.  Carrantji«%  is  often  eaten  witU 
bread  here  id  England  ;  and  I  have  often  seen  the  French  spread  the  pulp 
of  roasted  applet  on  theic  bread  instead  of  butter.  F.nn  . 

ff  P.  ern.pnrt ;. 


400  RELAflN6  TO  THiSIR  DIET,  &c. 

says,  is  a  great  regale  to  them.  "  Tbe^  mingle  flour 
with  water  in  a  wooden  bowl,  which  they  carry  always 
about  with  them,  and  knead  it  well  into  a  paste;  then 
they  spread  il  upon  the  sand,  where  the  fire  was  made, 
covering  it  up  with  hot  embers,  and  live  coals  over  them  ;, 
and  when  it  is  baked  on  one  side,  they  turn  it  upon  the 
other:  when  it  is  well  baked,  they  break  it  into  small 
pieces,  and  with  a  little  water  knead  it  again  anew,  adding 
thereto  butler,  and  sometimes  also  honey;  they  make  it 
into  a  thick  paste,  and  then  break  it  into  great  pieces, 
which  they  work  and  press  between  their  fingers,  and  so 
feed  on  them  with  delight ;  and  they  look  like  those  gob- 
bets of  paste  that  are  given  to  geese  to  fatten  them.'* 

It  may  be  fairly  collected,  I  think,  from  these  things, 
that  the  pouring  oil  on  the  meatoffering  baken  in  a  pan, 
and  broken  to  pieces,  according  to  Lev,  ii.  6,  was  accord- 
ing to  the  way  of  those  times,  when  they  would  regale 
their  friends  in  a  more  elegant  manner,  and  consequently 
to  be  done  out  of  respect  to  the  priests  of  the  Lord,  to 
whom  they  were  appropriated,  Lev.  vii.  9.  That  these 
words  of  Moses  are  by  no  means  to  be  understood,  accord- 
ing to  what  is  said*  to  have  been  the  opinion  of  Abar- 
banel,  dividing  it  as  it  laid  baking  upon  the  plate,  but  of 
its  being  afterward  broken  in  pieces,  and  presented  to  the 
priest  after  the  offerer  had  poured  oil  in  a  due  quantity 
upon  the  several  bits,  just  as  the  bowl  of  bits  of  bread 
and  syrup  was  presented  to  Dr.  Pococke :  if  not  broken 
in  order  to  be  kneaded  again  wi>h  oil,  after  the  manner  of 
the  Mafrouca  of  the  Arabs ;  which  though  perhaps  not 
so  probable,  I  would  by  no  means  take  upon  me  to  affirm 
does  not  come  under  the  description  of  the  lawgiver. 
And  that,  most  probably,  this  direction  of  the  sixth  verse 
is  not  a  peculiarity  belonging  to  that  sort  of  meatoffering, 
but  explanatory  of  that  mingling  with  oil  of  the  other 
sorts,  which  is  mentioned  in  the  fourth  and  seventh  verses. 

•  See  Patrick  upoa  Lev.  ii.  6. 


RELATING  TO  THEIR  DIET,  &c.  401 

The  Eastern  people  in  their  preparations  use  honej, 
the  juice  of  the  grape  boiled  up  to  a  syrup,  and  such  like  ; 
but  the  law  of  God  forbade  every  thing  of  this  kind,  in  the 
meatoSering,  limiting  them  to  the  use  of  oil :  but  the  man- 
.ner  of  mingling  them,  I  should  suppose  to  have  been  much 
the  same  with  theirs. 

I  do  not  remember  that  Moses  expressly  required  the 
use  of  the  oil  of  olives ;  but  I  do  not  apprehend  it  would 
have  been  lawful  for  a  Jew  to  have  presented  meatoflfer- 
ings  with  such  oils  as  they  now  frequently  use  in  those 
countries!  and  which  Maillet  thinks  must  make  their  viands 
detestable.*  The  neatness,  not  to  say  the  magnificence, 
required  in  their  sacred  offices,  effectually  forbade  the  use 
of  these  sorts  of  oil.  The  silence,  however,  of  Moses, 
does  not  seem  to  have  flowed,  from  the  not  knowing  in  his 
time  that  oil  might  be  drawn  from  other  vegetables;  for 
he  in  express  terms  required  oil  olive  for  the  lights  of  the 
Sanctuary,  but  rather  from  their  not  having  at  that  time 
been  wont  to  be  used  in  food,  only  for  lights. 

OBSERVATION    XI. 

cnnious  method  of  bakixg  bread  in  the  east. 

Dr.  Shaw  informs  us,f  that  in  the  cities  and  villages  of 
Barbary  there  are  public  ovens,  but  that  among  the  Be- 
douins, who  live  in  tents,  and  the  Kabyles,  who  live  in 
miserable  hovels  in  the  mountains,  their  bread  made  into 
thin  cakes,  is  baked  either  immediately  upon  the  coals  or 
else  in  a  Tajen,  which  he  tells  us  is  a  shallow  earthen 
vessel,  like  a  fryingpan:  and  then  cites  the  Septuagint,  to 

•  "This,  says  Dr.  Rnssell,  MS.  note,  does  not  follow.  Mail  let's  taste 
differs  from  that  of  many  Jews,  who  in  certain  dishes  prefer  «ctfra^(r  to 
olive  oil.  The  Arab  buttar  has  a  strong,  and  to  most  Englishmen,  disa- 
greeable taste  ;  yet  I  have  known  many  of  them  prefer  it  to  English  butter 
in  pillaw,  though  none  could  cat  it  at  breakfast  with  bread.  M'jch,  liow 
ever,  depends  on  the  mode  of  preparing  the  oil."  Epi  r. 

t  V.  23!. 
VOL.    I.  31 


402  RELATING     TO  THEIR  DIET,  &e. 

show  they  supposed   the  pan,  mentioned  Lev.  ii.  5,  was 
the  same  thing  as  a  Ta  jen.* 

This  account  of  the  Doctor's  is  curious  ;  but  as  it  does 
not  give  us  all  the  Eastern  ways  of  baking,  so  neither 
does  it  furnish  us,  I  am  afraid,  with  a  complete  comment 
on  that  variety  of  methods  of  preparing  the  meatoflferings, 
which  is  mentioned  by  Moses  in  that  chapter. 

So  long  ago  as  Queen  Elizabeth's  time  RauwolfF  ob- 
served,! that  travellers  frequently  baked  bread  in  the 
deserts  of  Arabia  on  the  ground,  heated  for  that  purpose  by 
fire,  covering  their  cakes  of  bread  with  ashes  and  coals,  and 
turning  them  several  times,  until  they  were  baked  enough  ; 
but  that  some  of  the  Arabians  had  in  their  tents  stones,  or 
copperplates  made  on  purpose  for  baking.  Dr.  Pococke, 
very  lately,  made  a  like  observation, J  speaking  of  iron 
hearths  used  for  the  baking  their  bread.§ 

*  The  Tajcn,  according  to  Dr.  Bussell,  is  exactly  the  same  among  the 
Bedouins  as  the  Tuynvof,  a  word  of  the  same  sound  as  well  as  meaning,  wa» 
among  the  Greeks.  So  the  Septuagint,  Lev.  ii.  5.  If  thg  oblation  be  a 
meatoffering  haken  in  a  pan^  efxo  nrttyxiav,  it  shall  be  ofjinejiour  unleav- 
ened, mingled  -with  oil. 

t  Ray's  Travels,  p.  149,  150.  ^  Vol.  ii.  p.  96, 

§  The  sixth  MS.  C,  mentioning  the  several  ways  of  baking  their  bread  in 
the  East,  describes  these' iron  plates  as  small  and  convex,  a  circumstance 
not  taken  notice  of,  I  think,  by  the  other  travellers  I  have  examined. 
These  plates  are  most  commonly  used,  he  tells  us,  in  Persia,  and  among 
the  wandering  people  that  dwell  in  tents,  as  being  the  easiest  way  of  baking, 
and  done  with  the  least  expense  ;  the  bread  being  as  thin  as  a  skin,  and 
soon  prepared.  Another  way,  for  he  mentions  four,  is  by  baking  on  the 
hearth.  That  bread  is  about  an  inch  thick :  they  make  no  other  all  along 
the  Black  Sea,  from  the  Palus  Mseotis  to  the  Caspian  Sea,  in  Chaldea,  and 
in  Mesopotamia,  except  in  towns.  This  he  supposes  is  owing  to  their  being 
woody  countries.  These  people  make  a  fire  in  the  middle  of  a  room, 
when  the  bread  is  ready  for  baking,  they  sweep  a  corner  of  the  hearth,  lay 
the  bread  there,  cover  it  with  hot  ashes  and  embers  ;  in  a  quarter  of  aa 
hour  they  turn  it:  this  bread  is  very  good.  The  third  way  is  that  which 
is  common  among  us.  The  last  way,  and  that  which  is  common  through 
all  Asia,  is  tlius, :  they  make  an  oven  in  the  ground,  four  or  five  feet  deep, 
and  three  in  diameter,  well  plastered  with  mortar.  When  it  is  hot,  they 
place  the  bread,  v  hich  '  commonly  long,  and  not  thicker  than  a  finger, 
against  the  sides :  it  is  baked  in  a  moment.  Ovens,  he  apprehends,  were 
not  in  use  in  Canaan,  in  the  patriarchal  age.  All  the  bread,  of  that  time, 
w«s  buked  upon  a  plate,  or  under  the  ashes:  that  mentioned  Gen.  xviii. 
fi,  was  of  this  last  sort.    The  shev/bread  he  supposes  was  of  the  same  kind 


D'A"fvieux  mentions*  another  way,  used  bjHie  Aratjs 
about  Mount  Carmel,  who  sometimes  bake  in  an  oven,  and 
at  other  times  on  the  hearth ;  but  have  a  third  method, 
which  is,  to  make  a  fire  in  a  great  stone  pitcher,  and  when 
it  is  heated,  they  mix  meal  and  water,  as  we  do  to  make 
paste  to  glue  things  together,  with  which  they  apply  with 
the  hollow  of  their  hands  to  the  outside  of  the  pitcher,  and 
this  extreme  soft  paste  spreading  itself  upon  it,  is  baked 
in  an  instant.  The  heat  of  the  pitcher  having  dried  up 
all  the  moisture,  the  bread  comes  off  as  thin  as  our  wafers ; 
and  the  operation  is  so  speedily  performed,  that  in  a  very 
little  time  a  sufficient  quantity  is  made. 

Maimonidesf  and  the  Septuagint  differ  in  their  expla- 
nation of  Lev.  ii.  5,  for  that  Egyptian  rabbi  supposes  this 
verse  speaks  of  a  flat  plate,  and  these  more  ancient 
interpreters  of  a  tajen*  But  they  both  seem  to  agree 
that  these  were  two  of  the  methods  of  preparing  the  meat- 
offering :  for  Maimonides  supposes  the  seventh  verse 
speaks  of  a  fryingpan  or  tajen  ;  whereas  the  Septuagint, 
on  the  contrary,  thought  the  word  there  meant  a  hearth, 
which  term  takes  in  an  iron  or  copperplate,  though  it  ex- 
tends further.  Both  then  agree  in  the  things,  though  their 
explanations  of  the  Hebrew  words  differ ;  and  these  two 
methods  answer,  the  Arab  way  of  baking  on  a  copper- 
plate mentioned  by  Rauwolff,  and  baking  in  a  tajen  which 
Dr.  Shaw  gives  an  account  of. 

The  meatofferings  of  the  fourth  verse  answer,  as  well 
the  Arab  bread  baked  by  means  of  their  stone  pitchers, 
which  are  used  by  them  for  the  baking  of  wafers  ;  as  their 
cakes  of  bread,  mentioned  by  d'Arvieux,  who  describing 
the  way  of  baking  among  the  modern  Arabs,  after  men- 
tioning some  of  their  methods,  says,  they  bake  their  best 
sort  of  bread,  either  by  heating  an  oven,  or  a  large 
pitcher  half  full  of  certain  little  smooth  shining  flints,  upon 

•  Voy.  dans  la  Pal.  p.  192, 195.  f  See  Patrick  upon  I-ct.  ii   i 


|6'4  HELA.TING  TO  THEIR  DIET,  &e. 

which  ihey  lay  the  dough,  spread  out  in  form  of  a  thin 
broad  cake.* 

The  mention  of  wafers  seems  to  fix  the  meaning  of  Mo- 
ses to  these  oven  pitchers,  though  perhaps  it  may  be 
thought  an  object,  that  this  meatoffering  is  said  to  have 
been  baked  in  an  oven :  but  it  will  be  sufficient  to  observe, 
the  Hebrew  words  only  signify  a  meatoffering  of  the 
Oven  ;  and  consequently  may  be  understood  as  well  of  wa- 
fers baked  on  the  outside  of  these  oven  pitchers,  as  of 
cakes  of  bread  baked  in  them.  And  if  thou  bring  an 
oblation  of  a  meatoffering,  a  baked  thing  of  the  oven,  it 
shall  be  an  unleavened  cake  of  fine  flour  mingled  with  oil, 
or  unleavened  wafers  anointed  with  oi7.f 

Whoever  then  attends  to  these  accounts  of  the  Arab 
stone  pitcher,  the  tajen,  and  the  copperplate  or  iron  hearth, 
■will  enter  into  this  second  of  Leviticus,  I  believe,  much 
more  perfectly  than  any  commentator  has  done,  and  will 
find  in  these  accounts  what  answers  perfectly  "well  to  the 
description  Moses  gives  us,'  of  the  different  ways  of  pre- 
paring the  meatofferings, 

A  tajen,  indeed,  according  to  Dr.  Shaw,J  serves  for  a 
fryingpan  as  well  as  for  a  baking  vessel ;  for  he  says, 
the  bagreah  of  the  people  of  Barbary  differs  not  much 
from  our  pancakes,  only  that  instead  of  rubbing  the 
tajen,  or  pan  in  which  they  fry  them,  with  butter,  they 
rub  it  with  soap  to  make  them  like  a  honeycomb.  Moses 
possibly  intended  a  meatoffering  of  that  kind  might  be 
presented  to  the  Lord  ;  and  our  translators  seem  to  pre- 
fer that  supposition,  since,  though  the  margin  mentions 
the  opinion  of  Maimonides,  the  reading  of  the  text  in  the 
sixth  verse  opposes  a  pan  for  baking,  to  a  pan  for  frying 
in  Ihe  seventeenth  verse.  The  thought  however  of  Mai- 
monides seems  to  be  most  just,  as  Moses  appears  to  be 
speaking  of  different  kinds  of  bread  only,  not  of  other  far- 
inaceous preparations. 

•  Voy  dans  1;»  Pal  p.  194.  f  Lev.  ii.  4 

t  Note  i.  p.  230. 


RELATING  TO  THEIR  DIET,  &c.  405 

In  all  Ihis  it  may  be  observed,  that  though  the  precepts 
of  Moses  were  sufficient  for  the  direction  of  Israel  in 
their  settled  state,  yet  they  seem  to  have  a  particular  re- 
lation to  the  methods  of  preparing  bread  used  by  those 
that  live  in  tents :  and  his  mentioning  cakes  of  bread 
baked  in  the  oven,  and  wafers  which  are  baked  on  the  out- 
side of  these  pitchers  in  the  fourth  verse,  with  bread 
baked  on  a  plate  and  in  a  tajen  in  the  fifth  and  seventh 
verses,  would  incline  one  to  think  their  meatofferings  were 
prepared  by  the  Israelites  in  their  own  tents,  and  brought 
from  thence  and  presented  to  the  LoRt),  rather  than  that 
Ihey  were  baked  in  an  oven,  or  pan,  or  on  a  plate,  appoint- 
ed for  that  purpose  in  the  court  of  the  tabernacle. 

But  whether  this  was  so  or  not,  the  account  these  trav- 
ellers give  of  the  Arab  manner  of  baking  on  a  plate,  will 
make  the  notion  of  Jarchi,  adopted  by  Abarbanel,  as  rep- 
resented by  Bishop  Patrick,^  appear  very  odd.  "They 
suppose  there  was  a  vessel  in  the  Temple,  which  was 
only  flat  and  broad,  but  had  no  rising  on  the  sides  of  it : 
so  that  the  oil  being  poured  upon  it,  when  it  was  set  on 
the  fire,  ran  down  and  increased  the  flame,  and  made  the 
cake  hard.**  The  one  of  these  was  a  French,  and  the  other 
a  Portuguese  rabbi,  I  think,  and  they  seem  to  have  as  little 
notion,  of  explaining  the  Old  Testament  by  ancient  customs 
that  remain  in  the  East,  as  any  Christian  commentators 
whatever. 

These  oven  pitchers  mentioned  by  d'Arvieux,  and  used 
by  the  modern  Arabs  for  baking  cakes  of  bread  in  them, 
and  wafers  on  their  outsides,  are  not  the  only  portable 
ovens  of  the  East:  St.  Jerom,  in  his  Commentary  on 
Lam.  v.  10,  describes  an  Eastern  oven  as  a  round  vessel 
of  brass,  blackened  on  the  outside  by  the  surrounding 
fire,  which  heats  it  within. f     Such  an  oven  I  have  seen 

•  On  Lev.  ii.  5. 

t  Clibanus  est  coquendis  panibus  ssnei  vaseuli  deducta  rotunditas,  qusr 
gab  urentibus  flammis  ardet  intrioicetis. 


406  RELATING  TO  THEIR  DIET,  &•. 

used  in  England.  Which  of  these  the  Mishnah  refers  to,* 
when  it  speaks  of  the  women's  lending  their  ovens  to  one 
another,  as  well  as  their  mills  and  their  sieves,  I  do  not 
know  :  but  the  foregoing  Observations  may  serve  to  re- 
move a  surprise,  that  this  circumstance  may  otherwise 
occasion  in  the  reader  of  the  Mishnah.  Every  body  al- 
most knows  that  little  portable  handmills  are  extremely 
common  in  the  Levant,  moveable  ovens  are  not  so  well 
known. 

Whether  ovens,  of  the  kind  St.  Jerom  mentions,  be 
as  ancient  as  the  days  of  Moses,  does  not  appear,  un- 
less the  tajen  be  used  after  this  manner  ;  but  the  pitcher 
ovens  of  the  Arabs  are,  without  doubt,  of  that  remote  an- 
tiquity. 

OBSERVATION  XII. 

FVBTHER    INFORMATION     CONCERNING     THEIR    MANNER 
OF    BAKING    IN    THE    EAST. 

Travellers  agree  that  the  Eastern  bread  is  made  in 
small  thin  moist  cakes,  must  be  eaten  new,  and  is  good 
for  nothing  when  kept  longer  than  a  day.  This,  howev- 
er, admits  of  exceptions.  Dr.  Russellf  of  late,  and  Rau- 
wolff  J  formerly,  assure  us,  that  they  have  several  sorts  of 
bread  and  cakes.  Some,  Rauwolff  tells  us,  done  with 
yelk  of  eggs,  some  mixed  with  several  sorts  of  seeds,  as 
of  sesamum,  Romish  coriander,  and  wild  garden  saflfron,§ 
which  are  also  strewed  upon  it :  and  he  elsewherell  sup- 
poses  that  they  prepare  biscuits  for  travelling.  Russell  also 
mentions  this  strewing  of  seeds  on  their  cakes,  and  says, 
they  have  a  variety  of  rusks  and  biscuits.  To  these  au- 
thors let  me  add  Pitts,^  who   tells  us,  the  biscuits   they 

*  In  tit.  Shebilth.  f  Vol.  i.  p.  116.  t  Ray's  Travels,  p.  95. 

$  The  cartharnus,  uot  "wild  saffron.    Dr.  Russell,  MS.  note.        Ebit. 

(i  P.  149.  II  P.  88. 


carrj  with  tiem  from  Egypt  will  last  them  to  Mecca,  and 
back  again. 

So  the  Scriptures  supposes  their  loaves  of  bread  were 
very  small,  three  of  them  being  requisite  for  the  entertain- 
ment of  a  single  person,  Luke  xi.  5.  That  they  were  gen- 
erally eaten  new,  and  baked  as  they  wanted  them,  as  ap- 
pears from  the  case  of  Abraham.  That  sometimes,  howev- 
er, they  were  made  so  as  to  keep  several  days,  so  the  shew- 
bread  was  fit  food  after  having  stood  before  the  Lord  a 
week.  And  that  bread  for  travellers  was  wont  to  be  made 
to  keep  some  time,  as  appears  from  the  pretences  of  the 
Gibeonites,  Josh,  ix,  12;  and  the  preparations  Joseph 
made  for  Jacob's  journey  into  Egypt,  Gen.  xlv.  23.* 

In  like  manner  too  they  seem  to  have  had  then  a  variety 
of  eatables  of  this  kind,  as  the  Aleppines  now  have.  In 
particular  some  made  like  those  on  which  seeds  are  strew- 
ed, as  we  may  collect  from  that  part  of  the  present  of  Jero- 
boam's wife  to  the  Prophet  Ahijah,  which  our  translators 
have  rendered  cracknellsy  1  King  xiv.  iii.  Buxtorff  in- 
deed supposes  the  original  word  a''npj  nakkudeem  signi- 
fies biscuits,  called  by  this  name,  either  because  they  were 
formed  into  little  buttons  like  some  of  our  gingerbread,  or 
because  they  were  pricked  full  of  holes  after  a  particular 
manner.  The  last  of  these  two  conjectures,  I  imagine, 
was  embraced  by  our  translators  of  this  passage,  for  crack' 
nells,  if  they  are  all  over  England  of  the  same  form,  are 
full  of  holes,  being  formed  into  a  kind  of  flourish  of  lat- 
ticework. I  have  seen  some  of  the  unleavened  bread  of 
our  English  Jews,  made  in  like  manner  in  a  network  form. 
Nevertheless,  I  should  think  it  more  natural  to  under- 
stand the  word  of  biscuits  spotted  with  seeds :  for  it  is 
used  elsewhere  to  signify  works  of  gold  spotted  with 

*  "  The  bread  or  ruika  for  travelling  is  often  made  in  the  form  of  large 
■'infft,  and  is  moistened  or  soaked  in  water  before  it  is  used."  Russell,  MS- 
note,  in  loc.      Edit. 

■J-Et  buccellata  I  Rep.  14,  3,  qiix  biscocta  vulg6  vocant,  aic  dicta  quod  in 
frusta  exigua  rotunda,  quasi  puncta  conficerentiir,  ant  quod  sins;uUri  forma 
interpunatarentur.    Epit.  Bad.  Heb.  p.  544 


408  llELATING  TO  THEIR  DIET,  kc. 

studs  of  silver;  and,  as  it  should  seem,  bread  spotted 
^vith  mould,  Josh.  ix.  5-12  ;  how  much  more  natural  then 
is  it  to  understand  the  word  of  cakes  spotted  with  seeds, 
which  are  so  common,  that  not  only  Rauwolffand  Russell 
speak  of  them  at  Aleppo,  but  Hanway  tells  us  too  that 
the  cakes  of  bread  that  were  presented  to  hiai,  at  the 
house  of  a  Persian  of  distinction,  were  in  like  manner 
sprinkled  with  the  seeds  of  poppies  and  other  things,  than 
of  cracknells,  on  account  of  their  being  full  of  holes.  It 
is  used  for  things  that  are  spotted  we  know,  never  in  anj 
other  place  for  a  thing  full  of  holes.  Our  translators 
then  do  not  appear  to  have  been  very  happy  in  the  choice 
of  the  word  cracknells  here.* 

As  ^o  all  particulars  of  the  ancient  bread  and  cake  kind, 
it  may  be  difficult  to  give  an  exact  account  at  this  dis- 
tance of  time.  Ainsworth  at  least  does  not  appear  to 
have  been  successful  in  a  criticism  of  this  sort,  which  he 
has  given  the  world  in  his  note  on  Ps.  xxxv.  16.  He 
thinks  that  as  bread  is  used  for  all  food,  so  a  cake  Dpn 
madogf  seems  to  be  used  for  all  juncates  or  dainty  meats ; 
but  it  is  used  for  those  cakes  Ezekiel  was  to  eat,  as  expres- 
sive of  the  hardships  of  a  siege,  which  were  so  far  from 
being  dainty  meats,  that  they  might  rather  be  termed  the 
bread  of  affliction ;  not  to  mention  other  places  were  noth- 
ing of  the  idea  supposed  by  Ainsworth  appears.  If  we  will 
allow  the  authority  of  the  Septuagint,  it  signifies  precisely 
bread  baked  under  the  coals  and  ashes,  for  thus  they  per- 
petually translate  this,  and  a  kindred  word,  iyK^v<pix^,  and 
nothing,  it  is  certain,  forbids  this  interpretation.  And 
if  so,  it  is  no  wonder  Ezekiel  abhorred  the  thought  of  eat- 
ing bread  prepared  after  this  manner  with  human  dung. 
As  for  the  other  words,  the  Septuagint  and  other  Greek 
interpreters  frequently  differ  in  their  translations  j  and 

•  Sir  J.  Chardin's  MS.  in  like  manner,  says,  "  several  sorts  of  bread  atk 
served  up  in  Eastern  feasts." 

Dr.  Russell,  in  a  MS.  note  here,  agrees  with  Mr.  Hanway,  and  thinks  the 
conjecture  just:  but  adds,  that  "  there  are  a  variety  of  sweatmeats  and 
pastry  made  in  different  forms,  but  none  made  for  long  keepiug."  Edit 


RELATING  TO  THEIR  DIET,  &c.  40^ 

even  the  Septuagint  itself  sometimes  translates  the  same 
Hebrew  word  by  different  terras,  and  different  Hebrew 
words  by  one  Greek  one  ;  the  general  meauinc;,  however, 
of  most  of  these  words  may  perhaps  be  ascertained. 

Is  not  nnab  lebiboth  in  particular,  the  word  that  in  gen- 
eral means  rich  cakes  ?  A  sort  of  which  Tamar  used  to 
prepare  that  was  not  common,  and  furnished  Amnon  with 
a  pretence  for  desiring  her  being  sent  to  his  house,  that 
she  might  make  some  of  that  kind  for  him  in  the  time  of 
'^  his  indisposition,  his  fancy  running  upon  them.*  To 
make  this  account  more  clear,  it  is  requisite  to  add,  from 
Dr.  Pococke's  travels,  that  the  women  of  the  East, 
though  they  be  very  great  persons,  do  themselves    pre- 

"  See  2  Sam.  xiii.  1-8.     Parkhurst  supposes  the  original  word  to   signify 
*' pancakes,  and  translate  the  root  237  labab,  to  move  or  toss  up  and  doivit. 

,,  And  she  took  the  dough  ^W'^l  vutalosli  and  kneaded^'^i^'^  vattilabeb  And 
tossed  it  in  \\\s  i\z\it,  /lyDni  vaittbashel,  und  dressed  the  cakes.  In  this 
passage,  says  Mr.  P.  it  is  to  be  observed,  that  ^^  '  is  distinguished  from  ^f 
to  knead,  and  from  'K'J  to  dress,  which  agrees  with  the  interpretatioa 
here  given."  The  account  which  Mr.  Jackson  gives  of  an  Arab  baking 
apparatus,  and  the  manner  of  kneading-  and  tossins;'  their  cakes,  will  at 
once,  if  I  mistake  not,  fix  the  meaning  of  this  passage,  and  cast  much  light 
upon  Lev.  si.  35.  "I  was  much  amused  by  observing  the  dexterity   of  the 

''  Arab  women  in  baking  their  bread.  They  have  a  small  place  built  with 
clay  between  two  and  three  feet  high,  having  a  hole  at  the  bottom  for  the 
convenience  of  drawing  oat  the  asjhes,  something  similar  to  that  of  a  lime- 
kiln. The  oven,  which  I  think  is  the  most  proper  name  for  this  place,  is 
usually  about  fifteen  inches  wide  at  toi),  and  gradually  grows  wider  to  the 
bottom.  It  is  heated  with  wood,  and  when  sufficiently  liot,  and  perfectly 
clear  from  smoke,  having  nothing  but  clear  embers  at  bottom,  which  con- 
tinue to  reflect  great  heat,  tliey  prepare  the  dough  in  a  large  bowl,  and 
mould  the  cakes  to  the  desired  size  on  aboard  or  stone  placed  near  the 
oven.  After  they  have  kneaded  the  cake  to  a  proper  consistence,  they 
pat  it  a  little,  tfien  toss  it  about  with  great  dexterity  in  one  hand  til!  it  is  as 
tliin  as  they  choose  to  make  it.  They  then  wet  one  side  of  it  with  water, 
at  the  same  time  wetting  the  hand  and  arm  with  which  they  put  it  iiito  the 
oven.  The  side  of  the  cake  adheres  fast  to  the  side  of  the  oven  till  it  is 
sufficiently  baked,  when,  if  not  paid  proper  attention  to,  it  would  fall  down 
among  the  embers.  If  they  were  not  exceedingly  quick  at  this  work,  the 
heat  of  the  oven  would  burn  their  arms,  but  they  perform  it  with  such 
fimaziog  dexterity,  that  one  woman  will  continue  keeping  three  or  four 
cake«  in  the  even  at  once,  till  she  has  done  baking,  'i'his  mode,  let  me  a<M, 
does  not  require  half  the  fuel  that  is  made  use  of  iu  Europe."  JoJirnetf 
from  hidia,  p.  50.    Edit. 

roL.  I.  .52 


410  RELATING  TO  THEIR  DIET,  8f«. 

pare  dinirer  inllieir  own  apartmenis,  or  at  least  inspect 
and  direct  it  :*=  it  appears  from  the  case  of  Tamar,  it  was 
so  anciently. f 

De  Dieu  seems  to  be  as  unhappy  in  his  differing  from 
the  Septuagint,  as  to  the  meaning  of  the  word  ni;;  uggah, 
in  Hosea  vii.  8, J  as  Ainsworth.  He  gives  us  from  Go- 
lius,  an  eyewitness,  much  such  an  account  of  the  Arab 
pitchers  for  baking,  as  I  have  done  from  d'Arvieux,  and 
he  supposes  vgguh  signifies  a  wafer  baked  on  the  outside 
of  these  earthen  vessels,  and  fancies  its  name  is  expres- 
sive of  its  concavo-convex  form,  derived  from  an  Arabic 
word  :§  very  unlucky  this  !  especially  to  be  mentioned  in 
this  text,  which  speaks  of  a  uggah  not  turned  ;  for  Golius, 
even  according  to  this  gentleman,  as  well  as  d'Arvieux, 
informs  us  these  wafers  are  baked  almost  instantaneously, 
but  the  iyy^vupiag  of  the  Septuagint  is  turned  over  and 
over  again.  RauwolfF's  account  of  them  has  been  cited 
by  authors,  but  must  be  repeated  here,  as  it  gives  us  the 
best  comment  on  these  words  of  Hosea.  "  The  woman 
was  not  idle  neither,"  speaking  of  his  entertainment  in  the 
tent  of  a  Curter  on  the  other  side  the  Euphrates,  "but 
brought  us  milk  and  eggs  to  eat,  so  that  we  wanted  for 
nothing ;  which  were  about  a  finger  thick,  and  about  the 
bigness  of  a  trencher,  as  is  usual  to-do  in  the  wilderness, 
and  sometimes  in  towns  also,  she  laid  them  on  hot  stones, 
and  kept  them  a  turning,  and  at  length  she  flung  the  ashes 
and  embers  over  them,  and  so  baked  them  thoroughly. 
They  were  very  good  to  eat,  and  very  savoury ."|| 

•  Vol.  i.  about  page  184. 

.  I  Dr.  Russell  says,  MS.  note,  "  The  Eastern  ladies  often  vash  their  own 
hands,  prepare  cakes,  pastry,  &c.  in  their  apartments.  And  some  few  par- 
ticular dishes  are  cooked  by  themselves,  but  not  in  their  apartments :  on 
sush  oocasion,  they  go  to  some  room  near  the  kitchen."    Edit. 

t  Vide  Poll  Syn.  in  loc. 
§  The  Arabic  word  used  by  De  Dieu  is^^.^  haivaja,  which  is  probably 
a  mistake  for  /jj^^i^  hajina,  which  Golius  renders  curvuafuit.    Edit. 

II  Ray's  Travels,  torn.  i.  p.  185, 186. 


RELATING  TO  THEIR  DIET,  &c.  411 

Loaves  are  also  sometimes  made  of  barley,  but  they 
are  only  used  by  people  in  distress. =^  The  common  use 
of  that  grain  is  for  feeding  horses :  it  was  so  anciently,  1 
Kings  iv.  28.  If  then  Boaz,  a  mighty  man  of  Avealtb,  made 
a  present  to  Ruth  of  barley,  after  he  had  made  a  declara- 
tion very  much  in  her  favour,  it  may  be  understood  to  be 
owing  to  the  preceding  great  scarcity  of  corn  in  that 
country  at  that  time,  and  Naomi's  returning  in  the  begin- 
ning of  barley  harvest,  and  before  any  wheat  was  reaped  5 
consequently  the  grain  presented  must  almost  necessarily 
be  barley,  and  after  such  a  dearth  might  be  a  very  ac- 
ceptable and  honorable  present.  In  like  circumstances, 
loaves  of  barley  were  not  thought  an  improper  present  to 
be  made  to  an  eminent  Prophet,  2  Kings  iv.  42. 

However,  it  may  be  further  observed,  that  as  the  pre- 
ceding famine  might  make  barley  for  loaves  very  accepta- 
ble to  Naomi;  so  there  are  other  preparations  of  it  that 
are  used  in  the  East,  in  the  most  plentiful  times,  and  even 
presented  to  persons  whom  they  would  treat  with  re- 
spect. So  Dr.  Pococke,  describingf  a  supper  that  was 
sent  him  by  a  person  of  distinction  in  Egypt,  an  Aga,  men- 
tions, along  with  the  pillaw,  the  goat's  flesh  boiled  and 
well  peppered,  and  the  hot  bread,  a  soup  of  barley,  with 
the  husk  taken  off  like  rice.  J 

OBSERVATION  XIII. 

OF    THE    EASTERN    SEETHING    POT, 

That  view  of  an  Eastern  seething  pot,  where  the  open- 
ing into  the  small  hollow  underneath,  into  which  the  fuel 
is  put§  is  right  before  the  eye  of  the  speclator,  must,  I 
thirit,  be  what  is  called  its  face,  Jer.  i.  13;  and  our  trans- 
lation appears  to  me  to  be  right,  which  supposes  the  face 
of  this  pot,  which  Jeremiah  saw  in  the  visions  of  God, 

•  See  Pitts,  p.  35,  208. 
t  Vol.  i.  p.  122,  123.  \  See  Observation  xxiii. 

§  For  their  pots  for  boiling  arc  not  placed  over  an  open  fire  as  with  us, 
but  over  a  hole,  with  an  aperture  into  it  on  one  side,  su  as  pretty  much  to 
resemble  our  coppers.    This,  according  to  Rauwolfi^  is  done  to  save  fuel. 


412  ^     RELATING  TO  THEIR  DIET,  &c. 

was  lurned  to  the  northward,   intimating  that  the  fuel  to 
be  put  under  it  was  to  be  brought  from  the  north. 

For,  as  the  people  that  were  to  destroy  the  Jews,  of 
that  age,  were  incontroverllbly  to  be  brought  from  that 
quarter,  v.  15  ;  and  as  that  destruction  is  elsewhere  rep- 
resented by  the  consuming  of  meat  boiled  in  a  pol,  Ezek. 
xxiv.  3 — 14;  the  representing  that  circumstance  of  the 
destruction  of  Jerusalem,  I  mean  its  being  effected  by  a 
people  that  came  from  the  North,  if  that  destruction  was 
represented  by  a  seething  pot  at  all,  was  most  naturally 
expressed  by  exhibiting  the  opening  into  the  furnace  aa 
turned  northward,  fuel  being  of  course  placed  on  the  side 
where  the  opening  was. 

This  representation  is  very  simple :  and,  after  paying  a 
little  attention  to  it,  some  comments  of  the  learned  of 
former  times  will  appear  not  a  little  odd.  It  is  not  how- 
ever necessary  to  recite  them. 

OBSERVATION   XIV. 

CURIOUS    ACCOUNT  OF  A    ROYAL  CAMEIi  FEAST    AND    THE 
MA\NER    OF    SEETHING    IT. 

That  passage  of  Ezekiel,*  cited  in  one  of  the  last  arti- 
cles, makes  but  a  strange  appearance  in  our  translation ; 
we  know  not  what  to  make  of  the  burning  the  bones  under 
the  chaldron,  neither  in  the  literal  or  the  figurative  sense. 
But  it  may  perhaps  receive  a  pretty  clear  illustration,  es- 
pecially the  Septuagint  translation  of  it,  from  the  account 
given  US  of  a  royal  Arab  camel  feast,  in  the  third  volume 
of  the  Philosophical  Transactions  abridged. f 

When  I  say  royal,  I  mean  a  feast  prepared  for  the  en- 
tertainment of  the  king  of  the  Arabs  of  the  Desert,  but  at 
the  expense  of  one  of  his  grandees,  of  which  two  j'oung 
camels  formed  the  principal  part.  "Before  midday," 
says  the  account,  "a  carpet  being  spread  in  the  middle 
lent,  our  dinner  was  brought  in,  being  served  up  in  large 

*  Ch.  xxir.  G— 12  r  Part  ii.  cU.  2,  art.  40,  §  2. 


RELATING  TO  THEIR  DIET,  &o.  413 

"wooden  bowls  between  two  men  ;  and  truly,  to  my  appre- 
hension, load  enough  for  them.  Of  these  great  platters 
there  were  about  fifty  or  sixty  in  number,  perhaps  more, 
with  a  great  many  little  ones,  I  mean,  such  as  one  man 
was  able  to  bring  in,  strewed  here  and  there  among  then], 
and  placed  for  a  border  or  garnish  round  about  the  table. 
In  the  middle  of  all  was  one  of  a  larger  size  than  all  the 
rest,  in  which  were  the  camels*  bones,  and  a  thin  broth  in 
which  they  were  boiled:  the  other  greater  ones  seemed 
all  filled  with  one  and  the  same  sort  of  provision,  a  kind  of 
plum-broth  made  of  rice,  and  the  ft^shy  part  of  the  camel, 
with  currants  and  spices,  being  of  a  somewhat  darker  col- 
our than  what  is  made  in  our  country.  The  less  were, 
for  the  most  part,  charged  with  rice,  dressed  after  several 
modes,  some  of  them  having  laben  a  thick  sour  miik,  pour- 
ed upon  them." 

The  Prophet  has  himself  in  another  part  of  this  sacred 
book,  given,  in  general,  an  explanation  of  this  parable: 
the  chaldron  or  pot  means  Jerusalem,  as  to  its  buildings; 
the  flesh  cooked  in  the  pot,  the  inhabitants  of  tha,t  ciij, 
that  were  to  be  slain  and  consumed  in  it.  Ch.  xi.  7. 

If  now  we  turn  to  the  translation  of  this  24th  chapter, 
in  the  Septuaginf,  we  shall  find  this  destrnctioa  expressed 
in  terms  that  may  remind  us  of  that  Arab  feast  I  have 
been  mentioning.  According  to  that  version,  the  parable 
speaks  of  "a  pot  or  chaldron  set  upon  its  furnace;  water 
poured  into  it;  the  halves  of  animals  that  were  fine,  put 
in,  each  consisting  of  the  leg  and  shoulder;  not  however 
whole,  but  the  flesh  removed  from  the  bones;  that  fire 
was  to  be  put  under  when  the  bones  were  placed  beneath 
the  flesh  ;  the  bones  to  be  boiled  and  stewed  iu  the  midst 
of  the  pot;  then,  after  some  accojint  of  the  meaning  of 
this  parable,  and  the  cause  of  God's  anger,  the  allusion  is 
taken  up  again,  when  God  threatens  to  heap  on  wood,  and 
to  kindle  the  fire,  so  as  to  consume  the  flesh,  and  diminish 
the  quantity  of  the  broth  ;  after  which  the  emplicd  chal- 
dron was  to  be  laid  on  the  coals,  and  its  impurities  to  be 
removed  by  the  violence  of  fire."  ^ 


4^g  RELATIire  TO  THEIR  DIET,  kc. 

This  is  (he  substance  of  their  account  of  this  parable, 
and  we  may  see  in  il  the  taking  off  the  flesh,  as  that  of  the 
camels  from  their  bones  in  the  Arab  feast ;  the  boiling  it 
down  to  a  pulpy  substance,  and  a  great  diminution  of  the 
liquid;  and  the  supposition  that  the  bones  themselves 
afforded  something  delicious.  Thus  far  these  ancient 
Egyptian  interpreters  go  in  their  account,  quite  agreeing 
with  the  modern  history  of  an  Arab  royal  feast,  and,  with- 
out doubt,  with  the  managements  of  their  own  times. 
Only  it  may  be  the  Arabs  stewed  their  bones  by  them- 
selves;  anciently,  it  seems,  they  did  it  in  the  same  pot 
with  the  flesh.  . 

If  now  we  turn  to  the  original  Hebrew,  it  is  visible  that 
the  second  clause  of  the  fifth  verse  must  be  wrong  trans- 
lated :  it  could  never  signify  burning  the  bones  under  the 
pot,  if  for  no  other  reason,  yet  for  this,  that  in  the  close 
of  the  4th  verse,  and  in  the  end  of  the  5th,  it  is  supposed 
they  were  to  seethe  them  in  it.  The  heaping  them  up, 
which  is  the  marginal  translation,  appears  to  be  the  true 
meaning.  And,  as  to  what  follows,  it  should  seem  we  are 
to  understand  the  word  as  signifying  the  lower  part  of  the 
pot,*  heap  up  the  bones  in  the  lower  part  of  the  pot,  and 
make  it  boil  well. 

The  10th  verse  mentions  the  consuming,  or  dissolving 
the  flesh,  the  spicing  or  seasoning  it,  and  the  burning 
bones,  or  rather  leaving  them  dry.  This  brings  to  mind 
the  spices  and  the  currants  of  the  great  camel  feast,  and 
the  emptying  of  the  chaldron  of  its  contents  so  entirely  as 
to  leave  nothing  but  bones  in  it. 

The  whole  parable  expresses  the  great  slaughter  of  the 
Jews  in  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem,  not  only  those  of 
the  lower  rank,  but  those  of  the  greatest ;  for  I  do  not  think 
that  the  choice  of  the  flock  is  to  be  understood  exclusive- 
ly of  others,  but  as  comprehending  many,  very  many  of 
them;  that  the  people  of  Babylon  would  take  as  great 
pleasure  in  destroying  the  Jewish  people,  as    men  would 

*  Vide  Job  xxviii.  5.  >v 


RELATING  TO  THEIR  DIET,  8ce.  41 5( 

do  ia  partaking  of  a  delicious  royal  repast ;  and  that  after 
the  city  was  emptied,  it  would  be  given  up  to  purging 
flames,  as  a  filthy  pot,  made  disagreeable  by  scum  and  other 
impurities,  might  be  cleansed  by  being  heated  in  the  fire 
to  a  high  degree.* 

How  the  Egyptian  translators  of  the  Septuagint  version 
came  to  leave  out  the  spicing,  or  seasoning  of  this  soup,^ 
for  the  wordy  I  presume,  is  not  limited  to  spices  properly 
speaking,  but  comprehends  every  thing  that  seasons,  or 
heightens  the  taste  ;  and  how  they  came  to  divide  what  of 
the  flock  was  stewed  just  into  halves,  which  the  word  they 
have  made  use  of  properly  signifies,  whereas  the  present 
Arabs,  when  they  would  make  pottage  even  of  a  chicken, 
divide  it  into  four  parts,  and  a  fowl  into  six  or  eight,  I  do 
not  know,  since  the  Hebrew  copies  only  suppose  the  ani' 
mals  put  into  the  chaldron  to  be  cut  in  pieces  in  general ; 
but  must  leave  it  to  my  reader  to  guess. f 

On  the  other  hand,  we  are  told  by  the  same  writer,  that 
in  their  grand  repasts,  they  stew,  not  unfrequendy,  a  whole 
lamb  or  kid.  J  The  parable,  however,  of  Ezekiel,  supposes 
them  divided  into  parts,  whether  halved  or  into  single- 
joints,  the  original  does  not  determine,  though  the  version 
of  the  Septuagint  does,  after  which  both  suppose  the  flesh 
was  taken  from  the  bones. 

OBSERVATION  XV. 

OP    THE  GRIJTDING  OF    THEIR    CORX,    AND  THE    TIME  OP 
THE    DAV    IN    WHICH    IT    IS    DONE. 

The  time  for  grinding  their  corn  is  the  morning ;  which 
consideration  makes  the  Prophet's  selecting  the  noise  of 
millstones,^  and  lighting  up  of  candles,  as  circumstances 
belonging  to  inhabited  places,  appear  in  a  view  which  no 

*  See  Nnmb.  xxi.  22,  23.  f  Voy.  tlaos  la  Pal.  par  de  la  Roque, 

ch.  U,  p.  199. 

t  P.  19«.  §  Jer.  xxy.  10. 


416  RELATING  TO  THEIR  DIET,  &c. 

commentators,  that  I  have  examined,  have  taken  anj  no- 
tice of. 

I  am  indebted  to  Sir  John  Chardin's  MS.  for  the  know^r 
ledge  of  this  fact.  It  informs  us  that  in  the  Ea^t  they 
grind  their  corn  at  break  of  day,  and  that  on  going  out  in 
a  morning,  one  hears  every  where  the  noise  of  the  mill ; 
and  that  it  is  the  noise  that  often  awakens  people.* 

It  has  been  commonly  known  that  they  bake  every 
day,  and  that  they  usually  grind  their  corn  as  they  want 
it ;  but  this  passage  informs  us,  that  it  is  the  first  work 
done  in  a  morning,  as  well  as  that  this  grinding  of  their 
mills  makes  a  considerable  noise,  and  attracts  every  ear; 
and  as  the  lighting  up  of  candles  begins  the  evening,  there 
is  an  agreeable  contrast  observable  in  these  words,  3forc- 
over,  I  will  take  from  them  the  voice  of  mirth,  and  the 
voice  of  gladness,  the  voice  of  the  bridegroom,  and  the 
voice  of  the  bride,  the  sound  of  millstones,  and  the 
light  of  the  candle.  And  their  whole  land  shall  be  a 
desolation,  Sec.  Gloomy  shall  be  the  silence  of  the  morn- 
ing, melancholy  the  shadows  of  the  evening ;  no  cheerful 
noise  to  animate  the  one,  no  enlivening  ray  to  soften  the 
gloom  of  the  other.     Desolation  shall  every  where  reign. 

A  land  may  abound  with  habitations,  and  furnish  an 
agreeable  abode  where  the  voice  of  mirth  is  not  heard  ; 
none  of  the  songs,  the  music,  and  the  dances,  of  nuptial 
solemnities ;  but  in  the  East,  where  no  millstones  are  heard 
in  the  morning,f  no  light  seen  in  the  evening,  it  must  be  a 
dreary,  dismal  solitude. 

•  la  a  note  on  Luke  xii.  42. 

f  Sir  J.  Chardin,  in  another  note  of  his  MS.  his  note  on  Rev.  xviii.  22, 
supposes,  that  songs  are  made  use  of  when  they  are  grinding.  It  is  very 
possible,  then,  that  when  the  sacred  writers  speak  of  the  noise  of  the  mill- 
stones, they  may  mean  not  the  noise  made  by  the  mills,  but  the  noise  of 
the  songs  of  those  that  worked  them  :  so  Chardin  understood  the  words  of 
St.  John,  Rev.  xviii.  22;  and  so  consequently  may  Jeremiah  be  understood  ; 
and  it  is  certain  this  is  the  noise  (Chardin  meant,  when  he  mentioned  the 
noise  of  grinding  in  a  morning.  His  words  are,  "  The  noise  of  a  millstone, 
that  is  to  say,  the  voice  and  songs  of  those  that  grind.  The  people  of  the 
East  commonly  make  use  of  handraills,  and  those  that  grind  sing.  From 
hence  one  hears  a  great  noise  in  great  cities." 


RELATING  TO  THEIR  DIET,  &c.  ff f 

Thisearliness  of  grinding  corn  makes  the  going  of  Re- 
chab  and  Baanah,*  to  fetch  wheat  the  day  before  from 
the  palace  to  be  distributed  to  the  soldiers  under  them, 
each  one  his  portion,  to  be  ground  early  in  the  morning, 
very  natural.f  It  appears  from  the  history  of  David,J 
that  princes  indulged  themselves  on  their  beds  until  the 
coolness  of  the  evening  began  to  come  on,  and  the  corn  to 
be  distributed  to  the  soldiers  must  of  course  be  had  thfe 
day  before  grinding :  their  coming  then  for  corn,  while 
Ishbosheth  was  still  indulging,  had  nothing  suspicious  in 
it  J  and  I  must  think  the  reading  of  our  present  Hebrew 
copies  more  natural  than  that  the  Septuagint  made  use  of, 
if  they  kept  close  to  their  copy.  The  Egyptian  women 
are,  indeed,  very  curious  in  cleaning  their  wheat  before 
they  grind  it,  according  to  Monsieur  Maillet;§  and  it  is 
not  very  wonderful,  if  the  female  servants  of  an  ancient 
Jewish  prince  might  make  use  of  something  of  the  like 
care  ;  a  female  might  be  employed,  possibly  as  a  porter,|l 
and  at  the  same  time  have  some  care  about  preparing 
corn  for  grinding :  but,  certainly,  in  such  a  case  there 
could  be  no  necessity  for  the  sacred  historian  to  mention 
this  part  of  her  employment,  along  with  her  sleeping;  her 
slumbering  was   abundantly  sufficient ;  yet,  according  to 

•  2  Sam.  iv.  2 — 7. 

f  It  is  still  a  custom  in  the  East,  to  allow  their  soldiers  a  certain  quantity 
ufmeat,  bread,  butter,  rice,  and  corn,  per  day,  Dr.  Perry  tells  us,  p.  43,  as 
well  as  some  pay. 

i  2  Sam.  xi.  2.  "  May  not  David  have  been  lounging  only  on  his  divan  ? 
as  to  walking  on  his  terrace,  it  naturally  would  be  after  sunset."  Dr.  Rus- 
sell, MS.  note.        ^oiT. 

§  "  It  may  not  be  disagreeable  to  you  to  see,  with  what  care  they  prepare 
their  corn,  for  making  it  into  bread,  in  the  houses  of  people  of  any  distinc- 
tion. They  examine  it  first  grain  by  grain;  they  afterward  wash  it  in 
several  waters,  and  dry  it  in  the  shade;  after  which  they  rub  it  between 
two  cloths,  before  they  carry  it  to  the  mill.  One  may  easily  imagine  whnt 
neatness  and  delicacy  must  attend  the  bread  made  of  such  flour."  Let.  9, 
p.  8. 

To  this  remark.  Dr.  Russell  adds,  MS.  note,  that  "  the  females  are  very 
careful  in  this  respect  at  Aleppo."        Edit. 

II  John  xviii.  17, 
VOL.  I.  53 


4t*  RELATING  TO  THEIR  DIET,  &o. 

the  Septuaginf,  all  this  is  mentioned;  the  sixth  verse,  ac- 
cording to  them,  being  *'  And  behold,  the  female  por- 
ter of  the  house  was  cleaning  wheat;  and  she  nodded, 
and  was  sleeping.  And  the  brethren,  Rechab  and  Baa« 
nah,"  &c. 

It  is  reraafked,  in  another  place  of  this  MS.  that  thej 
are  female  slaves  that  are  generally  employed  in  the  East 
at  these  handmills ;  that  it  is  extremely  laborious,  and 
esteemed  the  lowest*  employment  in  the  house;  about 
which  they  set  their  black  servants  only,  and  those  that 
are  the  least  fit  for  any  thing  else.  He  remarks,  that  most 
of  their  corn  is  ground  by  these  little  mills ;  that  he  did 
not  remember  to  have  seen  any  windmills  in  the  East, 
but  that  he  had  sees  watermills,  especially  at  Ispahan, 
and  some  of  the  other  great  cities  of  Persia ;  and  that 
they  sometimes  make  use  of  large  laiUs  wrought  by 
oxen  or  camels.f 

OBSERVATION   XVI. 

THE  MANNER  OF  LEAVENING  THEIR  BREAD. 

By  the  law  of  Moses,  there  was  no  leaven  of  any  kiird 
to  be  suffered  in  the  houses  of  the  Israelites,  for  seven  or 
eight  days  ;J  this  might  have  been  a  considerable  incon- 
venience in  Great  Britain,  but  none  at  all  in  Palestine. 

For  the  MS.  C.  assures  us,  they  use  no  kind  of  leaven 
in  the  East,§  but  dough  kept  until  it  is  grown  sour,  which 
they  keep  from  one  day  to  another:  if  then  there  should 
be  no  leaven  in  all  the  country  for  some  days,  in  twenty- 
four  hours  some  would  be  produced,  and  they  would  return 
to  their  preceding  state. 

•  Exod.  xi.  5.  f  Dr.  Russell  observes,  that  "they  use  mules 

and  blind  horses  at  Aleppo."  Edit. 

*  Exod.  xii.  15, 19. 

$  Yet  in  wine  countriea  it  should  seem,  hy  this  writer,  they  use  the  lees 
of  wine  as  we  do  yeast- 


HSLATING  TO  THEIR  DIET,  &c.  4t9 

OBSERVATION  XVII. 

METHOD  OF    CHURNIITG    IN    THE    EAST,    AIVD    OP    TREAD- 
ING   GRAPES    AND    OLIVES. 

The  Eastern  way  o^  churning,  which  is  done  by  put- 
ting the  cream  into  a  goat's  skin,  turned  inside  out,  which 
the  Arabs  suspend  in  their  tents,  and  then  pressing  it  to 
and  fro,  in  one  uniform  direction,  quickly  occasion  a  sepa- 
ration of  the  unctuous  from  the  wheyey  part.*  But  there 
is  another  way,  it  seems,  of  churning  in  the  Levanf ,  which 
is  by  a  man's  treading  upon  the  skin,  which  answers  the 
same  purpose. 

IVIons.  d'Arvieux  informs  us,f  that  the  butter  of  the 
Arabs  is  not  very  good,  and  always  has  something  of  thp 
taste  of  tallow  :  that  they  make  it  by  churning  in  a  leather 
bottle,J  which  is  not  very  cleanly ;  filling  it  up  after- 
ward with  milk,  and  so  make  their  cheese,  which  is  white, 
and  of  a  very  bad  taste,  but  they  make  no  other :  that  they 
drink  sometimes  sweet  milk,  and  sometimes  make  broth 
of  it;  but  that  when  it  curdles  they  put  the  juice  of  an 
herb  to  make  it  sourer,  and  consequently  more  refreshing: 
that  they  also  put  some  of  it  upon  their  piilaw,§  and  eat  it 
mixed  together. || 

Grapes,  it  is  well  known,  are  wont  to  be  trodden  with 
ihefeet,  when  they  want  to  make  wine.  Dr.  Chandler 
saw  it  practised  near  Smyrna,  just  as  he  left  Asia.  Black 
grapes  were  spread  on  the  ground  in  beds,  and  exposed 
to  the  sun,  to  dry  for  raisins  j  while,  in  another  part,  the 
juice  was  expressed  for  wine,  a  man,  with  feet  and  legs 
bare,  treading  the  fruit  in  a  kind  of  cistern,  with  an  hole 

*  Shaw,  p.  168.    D'Arvieux  gives  a  similar  account. 

t  Voy.dans  la  Pal.  p.  200,201. 

IHasselquist  gives  tlic  same  account,  p.  159. 

§  Their  boiled  rice.  |j  This  which  is  mixed  i)  termed  leban.,    Ruswil. 


420  RELATING  TO  THEIR  DIET,  &c. 

or  vent  near  the  bottom,  and  a  vessel  beneath  it  to  receive 
the  liquor.* 

The  Scriptures,  which  mention  the  treading  grapes i\ 
for  wine,  inform  us  that  olives  also  were  trodden,  to  get 
the  oil  contained  in  them.J  Whether  any  previous  prep- 
aration was  made  use  of  in  those  ancient  times,  we  are  not 
told ;  but  it  seems  certain  that  mills  are  now  used  for 
pressing  and  grinding  the  olives,  according  to  Chandler, 
which  grow  in  (he  neighbourhood  of  Athens.  These  mills 
are  in  the  town,  and  not  on  the  spot  in  which  the  olives 
grow;  and  seem  to  be  used,  in  consequence  of  its  being 
found,  that  the  mere  weight  of  the  human  body  is  insuflfi- 
cient  for  an  effectual  extraction  of  the  oil. 

The  treading  of  grapes  then,  and  olives,  are  well 
known  facts  ;  but  Dr.  Chandler  is  the  first  so  far  as  I  have 
observed,  that  has  given  us  an  account  of  the  way  of  tread- 
ing on  skins  full  of  cream,  by  men,  in  order  to  separate 
the  butter  from  its  more  watery  part :  and  deserves  at- 
tention, not  only  on  account  of  the  novelty  of  the  obser- 
vation j  but  as  it  may,  possibly,  throw  some  light  over  a 
passage  of  Job,  which  I  never  saw  well  accounted  for: 
When  I  washed  my  steps  with  butter,  and  the  rock  poured 
me  out  rivers  of  oil.]\ 

Commentators  have  observed,  what  every  sensible 
reader  must  have  perceived  without  their  help^  that  plenty 
of  butter  and  oil,  in  his  possession,  is  what  is  meant  in  this 
passage ;  but  none,  that  I  know  of,  have  given  any  tolera- 
ble account  of  the  ground  of  his  representing  this  exube- 
rance of  butter,  produced  by  his  kine  after  this  manner. 

The  way  in  which  a  great  man  was  to  pass  was  some- 
times swept,  sometimes  strewed  Avith  tlowers,  sometimes 
watered,  and  might,  possibly,  sometimes  be  moistened  with 
waters  of  an  odoriferous  kind  ;  but  was  it  ever  moistened 
ivith  melled  butter?  The  feet  were  sometimes  anointed 
with  oil,  in  \v  'lichodoriferoussubstances  had  been  infused,^ 
but  was  budcr  ever  applied  to  them  ? 

*  P.  2.  j-  Nell.  xiii.  15,  Is.  Ixiii.  '2,  Judges  ix.  27,  &c. 

i  Mic,  vi.  15,  Deut  xxxiii  fM  I)  Ch.  xxix.  6,        ^  Luke,  vii.37,  58 — 46. 


RELATING  TO  THEIR  DIET,  So.  42ff 

May  we  not  rather  suppose  there  is  a  reference,  in  these 
words  of  Job,  to  the  treading  skins  full  of  cream  under 
their  feet,  when  they  had  very  large  quantities  which  they 
iranted  to  churn  ? 

When  a  small  quantity  of  grapes  are  to  be  squeezed,  it 
may  be  done  commodiously  enough  by  the  hand  :  after  this 
manner  Pharaoh's  butler  supposed  he  squeezed  out  new 
wine  into  the  royal  cup.  Gen.  xl.  11.  This  indeed  was  only 
a  visionary  scene,  but  it  is  to  be  supposed  to  be  a  natural 
one.  So  when  there  was  a  quantity  of  cream,  such  as  a 
poor  x4.rab  may  be  supposed  to  be  possessed  of,  it  was 
put  into  a  skin,  suspended  in  his  tent,  and  the  whole  proc- 
ess conducted  by  the  females  belonging  to  it  ;  but  when 
the  number  of  a  man's  milch  cattle  was  large,  it  became 
requisite  to  put  the  cream  into  a  number  of  skins,  on  which 
he  might  tread,  and  by  that  means  produce  a  large  quan* 
tity  of  butter.  This  seems  to  me  no  improbable  account, 
and  by  no  means  an  unnatural  explanation  of  the  phrase, 
/  washed  my  steps  with  butter. 

Greece  is  indeed  considerably  distant  from  the  land  of" 
Uz;  and  the  age  in  which  Job  lived  far  removed  from  our 
times ;  but  as  a  skin,  which  Chandler  saw  in  Greece,  is 
still  the  churning  vessel  used  by  the  Arabs  in  the  Holy 
Land,  as  well  as  of  Barbary,  and  consequently,  as  the 
customs  of  the  Arabs  so  little  vary,  the  use  of  a  skin  for 
churning,  though  used  in  our  times  too,  is  to  be  understood 
to  be  very  ancient  ;  and  the  same  reason  that  might  in- 
duce the  more  opulent  Greeks  to  tread  Iheir  cream,  rather 
than  to  confine  themselves  to  the  motion  the  Arabs  gen- 
erally use,  might  make  the  richer  inhabitants  of  the  more 
Eastern  countries  do  the  like,  and  consequently  Job, 
who  abounded  in  cattle.  -  t  - 

The  expression,  it  must  be  allowed, »  highly  figurative, 
but  not  more  so  than  what  may  be  supposed  to  suit  Ori- 
ental poetry. 

The  word  washing,  when  used  poetically,  certaiflly  is 
not  confined  to  the  cleansing  the  feet  by  some  purifying 
fluid,  for  the  dipping  the  feet  in  human  blood  shod  in  war, 


422  RELATING  TO  THEIR  DIET,  &c. 

which,  according  to  Ihe  Mosaic  law,  was  a  very  unclean 
thing,  is  in  a  Jewish  poetic  writer  styled,  notwithstand- 
ing, a  washing  thefeet,  Ps.  Iviii.  10.  The  plunging  the 
feet  (hen  into  cream,  or  butter,  may  without  question,  be 
equally  called  washing  the  feet  in  butter,  and  walking  in 
it,  washing  the  steps. 

But  it  may  be  said,  there  is  a  wide  diiTerence  in  the  two 
cases :  in  walking  round  and  round  upon  a  number  of  skins 
filled  with  cream,  which,  after  a  time,  in  part  becomes  but- 
ter, the  feet  come  not  into  contact  with  either,  whereas 
the  Psalmist  speaks  of  dipping  the  naked  foot  into  the 
blood  of  the  slain. 

In  answer  to  this,  not  to  say  that  it  is  by  no  means  cer- 
tain, that  David  thought  particularly  of  the  foot  being 
bare,  when  dipped  in  the  blood  of  the  wicked  ;  and  that 
on  the  contrary,  the  feet  and  legs  of  warriors  of  that  an- 
cient time  were  covered,  sometimes  with  defensive  ar- 
mour of  brass  :=*  Jonah,  in  a  prayer,  or  divine  hymn,  says. 
The  waters  compassed  me  about  even  to  the  soul :  the 
depth  closed  me  round  aboutj  the  weeds  were  wrapt  about 
my  head.  Now  the  weeds  of  the  sea  came  not  into  con- 
tact with  his  head,  when  in  the  belly  of  the  fish.  Job 
then  might  as  well,  in  the  glowing  language  of  Eastern 
poetry,  be  said  to  have  washed  his  feet  in  butter,  as  Jonah 
said,  that  the  weeds  were  wrapped  about  his  head ;  though 
no  contact  in  either  case. 

Before  I  finish  this  article,  I  beg  leave  to  touch  on 
another  passage  of  this  ancient  poem,  which  the  manage- 
ment that  obtains  in  these  countries  may  serve  to  illus- 
trate :  "  He  shall  not  see  the  rivers,^*  says  Zophar,  "  the 
floods,  the  brooks  of  honey  and  butler,*'f 

We,  in  these  cooler  countries,  have  no  great  notion  of 
butter  being  described  as  so  extremely  liquid ;  it  appears 
among  us  in  a  more  solid  form.  But  as  the  plentiful  flow- 
ing of  honey,  when  pressed  from  the  comb,  may  be  com- 
pared, in  strong  language,  to  a  little  river,  as  it  runs  into 

•  J  Sam.  xvxL  6.  t  Job  ^^'  '^- 


RELATING  TO  THEIR  DIET,  &c.  423 

the  vessels  in  which  it  is  to  be  kept ;  so,  as  they  manage 
matters,  butter  is  equally  fluid,  and  may  be  described  af- 
•ler  the  same  way  :  so  Dr.  Shaw,  after  giving  an  account 
of  making  butter  in  a  skin,  says,  "  A  great  quantity  of 
butter  is  made  in  several  places  of  these  kingdoms  ;* 
which,  after  it  is  boiled  with  salt,  in  order  to  precipitate 
the  hairs  and  other  nastinesses  occasioned  in  the  churn- 
ing, they  put  into  jars,  and  preserve  it  for  use.  Fresh 
butter  soon  grows  sour  and  rancid."f  Other  authors 
give  a  like  account. 

Streams  of  butter  then,  poured,  when  clarified,  into 
jars  in  which  it  is  preserved,  might  as  naturally  be  com- 
pared to  rivers,  as  streams  of  honey  flowing,  upon  pres- 
sure, into  other  jars,  in  which  that  other  great  article  of 
^Eastern  diet  was  wont  to  be  kept,  for  after  use.  The 
wicked  man  shall  not  see  the  rivulets,  much  less  the  riv- 
ers, less  still  the  torrents  of  honey  and  butter  which  the 
upright  man  may  hope  to  enjoy :  for  such  seems  to  be 
the  gradation,  and  it  is  so  expressed  in  the  interlineary 
Latin  translation  of  Pagnin,  revised  by  Montanus. 

Unluckily  the  beauty  of  the  climax  is  lost  in  our  trans- 
lation. Instead  of  continuing  to  rise,  it  sinks  in  the 
close  J  ending  with  brook,  after  having  mentioned  rivers 
and  torrents.  The  Vulgate  uses  only  two  of  the  words, 
rivulets  and  torrents,  and  by  thus  ranging  them  does 
not  destroy  the  energy  of  the  gradation,  though  it  makes 
it  less  complete. 

Here  are  several  things  observable  ;  but  it  is  the  ac- 
count of  their  manner  of  making  butter|  I  would  par- 
ticularly remark,  which  is  also  used,  according  to  Dr. 
Shaw,||  in  Barbary,  because  it  seems  to  me  to  throw 
light  on  what  is  said  of  Jael,  in  the  4th  and  5th  of 
Judges:  And  he,  Sisera,  said  unto  her,  give  me,  I  pray 

•Those  of  Barbary.  t  P-  1<59-  *  P-  ^^S. 

II  Vol.  i.  p.  188.  "  U  the  chemah,  nya  Dr.  Russell,  MS  note,  be  the 
same  as  the  kaymak  of  the  Arabs,  which  is  very  probable,  it  is  not  sim- 
ple creaBD;  but  cream  prepared  like  that  in  Deyoashire  and  CorawalU" 

Fdit. 


HELATING  TO  THEIR  DIET,  &c. 

thee  a  little  water  to  drink,  for  I  am  thirsty:  and  she 
opened  a  bottle  of  milk,  and  gave  him  drink^  and  cov- 
ered him.  Judges  iv.  He  asked  water,  and  she  gave 
him  milkt  she  brought  forth  butter  in  a  lordly  dish. 
Judges  V.  25. 

Vitringa,  in  his  commentary  on  Isaiah,  tells  us  that 
the  word  nttDn  chemah,  signifies  not  only  butter  but 
cream,  and  that  this  last  is  the  genuine  sense  of  the 
word;  he  commends  Alting  for  making  this  observation, 
which  he  thinks  that  writer  has  effectually  confirmed,  by 
comparing  Judges  v.  25,  with  Judges  iv.  19.  He  adds 
that  Jarchi,  who  was  an  eminent  French  rabbi  of  the 
twelfth  century,   had  the  same  thought  before  Alting. 

I  believe  few  people  would  think  cream  very  proper 
drink  for  one  that  was  extremely  thirsty.  And  if  I  am 
not  mistaken,  a  much  clearer  account  may  be  given  of 
these  two  texts  from  Mons.  d'Arvieux.  Jael,  it  is  to  be 
observed,  was  the  wife  of  Heber  the  Kenite  ;  and  that 
Heber,  as  well  as  the  rest  of  the  Kenites,  dwelt  in  Pales- 
tine in  tents,  just  as  the  Arabs  do  now,  being  indeed  an 
Arab  tribe.  If  the  Kenites  made  butter  then,  as  the  mod- 
ern Arabs  do,  and  as  there  does  not  appear  any  refine- 
ment in  the  present  Arab  custom,  but  all  the  marks  of  the 
ancient  simplicity,  we  may  believe  they  did,  the  suppos- 
ing Jael  had  been  just  churning  will  account,  in  the  easiest 
manner  in  the  world,  for  these  two  Scriptures.  Sisera 
being  thirsty,  asked  for  some  water  to  drink ;  she  opens  a 
bottle,  a  skin  according  to  the  original,  a  leather  bottle, 
that  is,  with  which,  agreeably  to  the  Arab  mode,  she  had 
just  been  churning,  and  pouring  its  contents  into  a  bowl 
fit  to  be  presented  to  a  man  of  Sisera's  quality,  and  doubt- 
less the  best  she  had  in  the  tent,  she  offers  him  this  butter- 
milk to  drink.  This  gave  occasion  to  Deborah  to  speak 
of  milk  and  butter  both.  Sour  milk  is  esteemed  by  those 
people  more  refreshing  than  that  which  is  sweet.  Instead 
then  of  giving  him  water,  when  he  complained  of  thirst, 
she  gave  bim  a  better  sort  of  liquid,  but  of  a  kind  the  most 


RELATING  TO  THEIR  DIET,  &c.  425- 

refreshing,  we  may  believe,  that  she  had  then  by  her. 
Every  thing  in  these  two  iexta  agrees  with  the  Arab  cna- 
toins.  Chemah  nxTDn  certainly  signifies  butter^  as  appears 
Prov.  XXX.  33;  that  it  signifies  cream  may  be  true,  but  is 
by  no  means  proved  by  the  collation  of  these  passages,  as 
Ailing  pretends.* 

So  have  I  known  a  British  nobleman,  of  the  first  dis- 
tinction, drink  buttermilk  with  great  relish  when  thirsty 
after  hunting.  And  what  is  still  more  to  the  purpose,  Dr. 
Pococke,  when  he  is  giving  an  account  of  an  Arab's  enter- 
taining hira  in  the  Holy  Land  as  well  as  he  could,f  informs 
us  that  they  brought  cakes  which  were  sour,  and  fine  oil 
of  olives  to  dip  them  in  ;  but  perceiving  he  did  not  like  it, 
they  served  him  up  some  sour  buttermilk  :J  and  every 
meal  was  finished  wilh  coffee.  It  is  to  be  remembered, 
this  was  the  entertainment  of  people  that  treated  him  in 
the  most  respectful  manner  they  could,  and  was  produced, 
when  they  found  what  was  before  prepared  for  him  was 
not  so  agreeable,  desirous  to  do  every  thing  they  could  to 
accommodate  him.  So  in  the  account  which  was  publish- 
ed of  Commodore  Stewart's  embassy,  to  redeem  some 
British  captives  in  172},  we  are  told  that  buttermilk  is 
the  chief  dessert  of  the  Moors  j  and  that  when  they 
would  speak  of  the  extraordinary  sweetness  of  any  thing, 
I  suppose  agreeableness  is  meant,  they  compare  it  to  but- 
termilk.!| 

OBSERVATION  XVIII. 

OF    THEIR    CHEESE    IS     THE    EAST. 

As  to  what  la  Roque  lias  said,  on  the  authority  of  Mons. 
d'Arvieux,  concerning  the  Arab  way  of  making  cheese, 

•  "  I  should,  says  Dr.  Russell,  MS.  note,  think  Altinijin  tlie  right,  fortlie 
tbllowing  reason  ;  the  Arab  butter  is  .ipt  to  be  foul,  and  is  commonly 
passed  through  a  strainer  before  it  is  served  up.  1  never  saw  btuter  offered 
to  a  stranger,  but  always  hai/mak  ;  nor  did  I  ever  observe  them  drink.  6?^/- 
'ermilk,  but  always /eian  diluted  with  water."        Edit. 

t  Vol.  ii.  p.  2,  p.  25.  i  Lebati,  not  buttermilh.       Edit. 

1 1  To  leban ;  so  Dr.  Russell  in  bis  MS.  notes  on  Ibeso  two  placet.    Edit. 
vor.  f.  .54 


CfiHi  HELATING  TQ  THEIR  DIET,  &e. 

•which  was  mentioned  under  the  last  Observation,  a  doubf 
having  been  made  by  some  persons  concerned  in  our  En- 
glish dairies,  whether  milk  could  be  sufficiently  turned,  by 
buttermilk,  into  curds  to  make  cheese,  I  had  the  experi- 
ment tried;  and  when  the  buttermilk  is  a  little  sour,  as 
we  may  believe  it  always  is  in  those  hot  countries,  it  ia 
very  suiBcient  for  the  purpose:  and  the  cheese  produced 
in  this  manner,  though  not  the  very  best,  was  found  more 
agreeable  than  was  expected.  But  observations  of  this 
kind  do  not  belong  to  these  papers. 

In  a  language,  I  would  remark  then,  so  little  copious  as 
the  Hebrew,  it  is  scarcely  credible  that  there  should  be 
three  different  words  to  signify  cheese  ;  yet  in  the  three 
passages  in  which  that  word  occurs  in  our  translation,* 
the  original  words  are  all  different. 

Cheese  is  eaten  very  commonly  in  the  East,  as  well  as 
with  us;  one  would  have  imagined  therefore  the  Septua-- 
gint  would  have  been  at  no  loss  in  translating  passages 
which  speak  of  cheese,  or  in  determining  what  they  meant, 
if  some  other  kind  of  milkmeats  were  meant  in  them. 
They  nevertheless  retain  the  original  word  in  2  Sam.  xvii. 
29,  as  if  they  did  not  understand  its  meaning;  and  other 
translators  have  supposed  that  word  signifies  sucking 
calves.  The  other  two  words  the  Septuagint  translate 
by  two  different  Greek  words,  which  are  understood 
to  signify  cheese  ;  the  difference  between  them,  if  there 
be  a  difference,  not  being,  that  I  know  of,  well  ascertained. 
Dr.  Shaw,  in  his  account  of  the  Barbary  cheeses,f  tells 
us  they  are  small,  rarely  weighing  above  two  or  three 
pounds,  and  in  shape  and  size  like  our  penny  loaves.  One 
would  imagine  the  ancient  Jewish  cheeses  were  of  the 
same  shape,  since  the  same  word  signifies  a  hill,  which 
in  Job  X.  10,  is  translated  cheese.  So  the  Septuagint 
translate  the  high  hills  of  Ps.  Ixviii.  15,  16,  by  a  word  that 
signifies  cheeselike  hills.  This  would  hardly  have  been, 
had  their  cheeses,  which  are  commonly,  if  not  always, 
eaten  new,  been  like  the  new  cheese  of  our  country. 

»  i  Sam.  3wii.  18,  2  Sam.  xvii.  29,  Job  x,  10.  t  P-  *6^ 


ItELATlNG  TO  THEIK  DIET,  &c.  427 

The  word  in  1  Sam.  xvii.  18,  can  hardly  be  imagined 
<o  signify  cheese  directlj',  since  milk  is  added  in  the  orig^ 
inal,  and  cheeses  of  milit  is  so  odd  an  expression  :  all  cheese 
being  made  of  milk  of  some  kind  or  other.  Our  transla- 
tors were  so  struck  with  this,  that  thej  have  suppressed 
the  word  milk  as  perfectly  superfluous.  But  as  the  word 
signifies  a  rolling  instrument  used  for  threshing,  may  we 
not  suppose,  that  what  Jesse  bid  his  son  David  carry  to 
the  oflScer  of  the  army,  were  ten  baskets,  somewhat 
of  the  shape  of  their  threshing  instruments,  in  which 
there  was  coagulated  milk?  Baskets  made  of  rushes,  or 
Ihe  dwarfpalm,  are  the  cheesevats  of  Barbary  ;*  into 
these  they  put  the  curds,  and  binding  them  up  close, 
press  them.  But  the  Eastern  cheeses  are  of  so  very  soft 
a  consistence  after  their  being  pressed,  and  even  when 
they  are  brought  to  be  eaten,  that  Sandys  imagined  they 
were  not  pressed  at  all:f  a  beastly  kind  of  unpressed 
cheese,  that  lie  in  a  lump,  being  his  description  of  this 
part  of  the  Eastern  diet.  Now  if  the  cheeses  sent  by 
Jesse  were  as  soft  and  tender  as  those  Sandys  speaks  of; 
or  if  the  milk  was  only  coagulated,  so  as  to  be  what  we 
mean  by  the  word  curds,  which  according  to  Rauwolff,  in 
a  passage  I  shall  have  occasion  very  soon  to  quote,  is  a 
considerable  part  of  the  diet  of  the  East  ?  can  we  imagine 
any  way  more  commodious  for  the  carrying  them  to  the 
army,  than  in  the  rush  baskets  in  which  curds  were  formed 
into  cheese  ? 

Nor  would  such  baskets  of  coagulated  milk  have  been  an 
improper  present  for  an  officer  in  the  army  of  Saul,  not- 
withstanding Sandys  thought  it  a  beastly  sort  of  food  ;  for 
by  comparing  some  passages  of  Dr.  Pococke  together,  it 
appears,  that  such  sort  of  cheese  is  used  in  the  East  at 
this  time  at  the  more  elegant  tables  of  persons  of  distinc- 
tion. Thus,  in  describing  the  hospitality  of  the  Arabs  in 
Egypt,  he  says,  "  The  middling  people  amongst  them, 
and  the  Coptis,  live  much  poorer.  I  have  often  sat  down 
with  them  only  to  bread,  raw  onions,  and  a  seed  pounded 

•  Shaw,  ubi  supra.  }"  P.  51. 


428  RELATING  TO  THEIR  DIET,  &c. 

and  put  in  oil,  which  they  call  Serich,  proJuccd  by  ati 
herb  called  Simsim,  into  which  they  dip  their  bread;''* 
yet,  poor  as  Ihese  repasts  are,  the  chief  difference  between 
theui  and  the  collation  prepared  lor  the  Governor  of 
Faiume,  with  whom  he  travelled,  and  of  whose  way  of 
living  he  speaks  with  honor,  consisted  chiefly,  according 
to  his  own  description,  in  the  addition  of  new  cheese,  for 
he  saySjf  it  was  of  bread,  raw  onions,  and  a  sort  of  salt 
pickled  cheese.  Ten  cheeses  then,  of  this  sort,  or  ten 
baskets  of  curds,  was  by  no  means  an  improper  present  for 
Jesse  to  make  on  this  occasion;  but  whether  this  may  be 
thought  to  be  the  meaning  of  the  sacred  writer,  I  leave  with 
my  reader.  i  i^noi  <«• 

OBSERVATION   XIX. 

MILK,    A    GENERAL    DIET    IN    THE    EAST. 

Milk  is  a  great  part  of  the  diet  of  the  Eastern 
people.  Their  goats  furnish  them  with  some  of  it,  and 
Russell  tells  us,J  are  chiefly  kept  for  that  purpose;  that 
they  yield  it  in  no  inconsiderable  quantity;  and  that  it  is 
sweet  and  well  tasted. 

This,  at  Aleppo,  is,  however,  chiefly  from  the  beginning 
of  April  to  September;  they  being  generally  supplied 
the  other  part  of  the  year  Avith  cow's  milk,  such  as  it  is  : 
for  being  commonly  kept  at  the  gardens,  and  fed  with  the 
refuse,  the  milk  generally  tastes  so  strong  of  garlick,  or 
cabbageleaves,  as  to  be  very  disagreeable.  Might  there 
not  be  the  same  difference  in  Judca  in  the  time  of  Solomon  ? 
and  may  not  his  words,  Prov.  xxvii.  27,  be  designed  to 
express  the  superior  qualify  of  goat's  milk  to  that  of  any 
other  kind  in  that  country? 

OBSERVATION  XX. 

Dn-KRIUKT    ARTICIES    OF    FUEL    IN    THE    EAST. 

If  some  of  (he  Eastern  ways  of  baking  and  churning 
have  surprised  us,  we  shall   be  as  much  struck  with  their 

•  Vol.  i.  p.  182.  'i'lic  Sccriffc  oil  mentioned  before,  profluced  from  tli'.- 
Sesamum,       Edit.  f  P.  56.  i  Vol.  ii.  p,  150, 


UELATING  TO  THF.IIl  DIET,  &o.  429 

I'uel.  Wood  is  so  scarce  in  those  counfries,  that  they 
make  use  of  things  that  we  do  not  think  of,  though  little 
firing  is  burnt  there,  in  comparison  of  what  is  consumed  in 
colder  countries. 

Many  travellers  have  taken  notice  of  this,  Dr.  Russell 
in  particular  tells  us,  that  at  Aleppo  they  use  wood 
and  charcoal  in  their  rooms,  but  heat  their  baths  with 
cowdung,  the  parings  of  fruit,  and  such  like  things, 
which  they  employ  people  to  gather  for  that  purpose.* 
If  these  things  are  confined  to  (he  healing  of  baths  at 
Aleppo,  they  are  not  in  other  places  ;  for  Pitts  tells  usf 
there  is  such  a  scarcity  of  wood  at  Grand  Cairo,  that  they 
commonly  heat  their  ovens  with  horse  orcowdung,  or  dirt 
of  the  streets,  what  wood  they  have  being  brought  from 
parts  adjoining  to  the  Black  Sea,  and  sold  by  weight. 

D'Arvieux  in  like  manner,J  complaining  that  one  sort 
of  Arab  bread  smells  of  smoke,  and  tastes  of  the  cowdung 
used  in  baking  it,  informs  us  that  the  peasants  often  make 
use  of  the  same  fuel  too,  and  that  all  who  live  in  villages 
where  there  is  not  plenty  of  wood,  are  very  careful  to 
stock  themselves  with  it ;  the  children,  he  says,  gather  up 
the  dung,  and  clap  it  against  a  wall  to  dry,  from  whence, 
the  quantity  that  is  necessary  for  baking,  or  warming  them- 
selves, is  taken  from  time  to  time.]] 

But  if  this  kind  of  turf  is  sometimes  left  sticking  to  the 
wall  until  it  is  used,  In  some  of  the  villages  of  Palestine, 
it  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  it  continues  there  the  rainy 
season ;  much  less  can  we  suppose  the  walls  of  the  houses 
at  Grand  Cairo  are  thus  ornamented:  doubtless  this 
stock  of  firing  is  laid  up  in  some  outhouse,  or  other  con- 

•  Vol.  i.  p.  38.  t  P.  lOi.  i  Yov.  dans  la  Pal.  p.  193,  194. 

II  Sir  J  Cliardin  in  his  MS  tells  us,  "  the  I'.istern  people  alw&yg  used 
cowdun)^  fur  baking,  l>oil!nga  pot,  and  dressingail  kinds  of  victuals  that  arc 
easily  cooked;  especially  in  counlt-icB  that  have  hut  little  wood.  As  lor  the 
Indians,  they  use  it  for  another  reason  :  namely,  lest  in  dressing  their  food 
■with  wood,  some  worm  or  insect  bhould  be  destroyed,  for  whose  death  they 
would  become  guilty  ;  for  this  cause,  in  the  Indies  tliey  bring  carts  full  of 
dried  cowdung  to  sell,  for  this  crcalurj  th'*y  heli'-ve  to  he  'he  holiest  of  all, 
and  much  better  than  man." 


J30  RELATING  TO  THKIR  DIET,  &«., 

venient  place,  as  the  same  sort  o(  fuel  is  by  those  of  the 
poor  people  of  this  country  who  make  use  of  it.* 

This  I  have  thought  may,  possibly,  serve  to  explain 
the  complaint  of  Jeremiah,  Lam.  iv.  5.  They  that  did 
feed  delicately,  are  desolate  in  the  streets :  they  that 
were  brought  up  in  scarlet,  embrace  dunghills.  This 
taking  refuge  in  dunghills  is  not  mentioned  in  European 
descriptions  of  the  horrors  of  war ;  but  if  they  in  the  East 
burnt  dung  anciently,  as  much  as  they  do  now,  and  pre- 
served a  stock  of  it  with  the  solicitude  of  these  times,  it 
will  appear  quite  natural  to  complain  that  those  that  had 
fed  delicately,  were  wandering  without  food  in  the  ways  ; 
and  they  that  had  been  covered,  not  only  with  clean  gar- 
ments, but  with  robes  of  magnificence,  were  forced,  by 
the  destruction  of  their  palaces,  to  take  up  their  abode  in 
places  designed  for  the  reception  of  this  sort  of  turf,  and 
to  sit  down  upon  those  heaps  of  dried  dung. 

There  is  a  passage  in  Philo  which  may  be  illustrated 
by  this  account,  and  in  return  serves  to  confirm  the  ex- 
planation I  have  given.  That  author,  in  his  book  against 
Flaccus  the  president  of  Egypt,  complaining  of  the  inju- 
ries done  to  the  Jewish  nation  in  that  country,  tells  us 
that  Alexandria  was  divided  into  five  parts  ;  that  two  of 
them  were  called  the  Jewish  wards,  because  mostly  in- 
habited by  Jews,  who  dwelt  also,  though  scatteringly,  in 
the  other  divisions  ;  that  Flaccus  suffered  their  enemies 
to  expel  the  Jews  out  of  four  of  these,  and  to  force  them 
all  into  one  single  quarter,  and  that  the  smallest,  which  not 
being  able  to  contain  them  on  account  of  their  multitude, 
many  of  them  were  forced  to  go  out  of  the  city,  to  the 
shores,  monuments,  and  dunghills ;  that  their  enemies 
spoiled  their  houses  from  which  they  had  driven  them, 

•  Dr.  Russell  remarks,  MS.  note  "  The  Arabs  carefullj  collect  the  dung 
of  the  sheep  and  camel,  as  welt  as  that  of  the  cow."  He  further  observes, 
that  "  the  dung,  offals,  &c.  made  use  of  in  the  Bagnios,  after  having  been 
new  gathered  in  the  streets,  are  carried  out  of  the  city  and  laid  ia  great 
heaps  to  dry,  where  they  become  very  offensive  ;  while  dried  in  the  town 
adjoining  to  the  Bagnios,  they  are  intolerably  offensive  while  drying ;  and 
are  so  at  all  times  when  it  rains,  though  they  be  stacked,  pressed  hard  to- 
other, and  thatched  at  top."     Edit. 


RELATING  TO  THEIR  DIET,  &o.  43j 

and  finding  nobody  opposed  them,  broke  open  their  shops 
too,  carrying  away  every  thing  they  found  there.* 

This  passage  is  full  of  references  to  Eastern  customs. 
How  far  the  editors  of  Philo  have  explained  them,  I  know 
not,  my  edition  has  few  or  no  notes  ;  but  it  is  very  cer- 
tain this  account,  if  considered  with  attention,  must  be 
puzzling  to  those  that  are  strangers  to  the  customs  of  the 
East,  Dr.  Shaw  observes,f  that  among  the  Moors  the 
graves  of  the  principal  citizens  have  cupolas,  or  vaulted 
chambers,  of  three,  four,  or  more  yards  square,  built  over 
them,  and  that  they  frequently  lie  open,  and  afford  an  oc- 
casional shelter  from  the  inclemency  of  the  weather:  this 
circumstance  explains,  he  supposes,  the  Demoniac's 
dwelling  among  the  tombs,  Mark  v.  3;  and  is  equally  a 
comment,  on  that  part  of  Philo*s  account  which  speaks  of 
the  Jews  going  for  shelter,  out  of  the  city,  to  the  monu- 
ments. A  passage  in  Norden  explains  another  as  happi- 
ly, which  I  was,  I  must  confess,  quite  at  a  loss  to  account 
for  till  I  read  that  author  :  *' What  we  have  mentioned," 
says  that  Danish  gentleman,  "  is  too  barren  a  spot  to 
continue  there  any  longer.  It  is  better  to  cast  our  eyes 
on  those  little  hollow  places  of  the  shore,  which  they 
made  iise  of  for  agreeable  retreats  ;  where  they  diverted 
themselves  with  enjoying  the  cool  air  ;  and  from  whence, 
without  being  seen,  but  when  they  chose  it,  they  saw 
every  thing  that  passed  in  the  port.  Some  rocks  that  jut 
out,  furnished  a  charming  situation  ;  and  natural  grottos, 
which  those  rocks  had  made,  gave  the  opportunity  of 
forming  there,  with  the  assistance  of  the  chissel,  real  places 
of  pleasure.  In  effect,  we  find  entire  apartments  made, 
in  this  manner,  &c.^     AH  these  agreeable  retreats,  which 

•  P.  973,  cd.  Francfort  1601.  See  also  the  proeedisg  note  from  Dr. 
Rns<)ell.  t  P.  219. 

i  In  the  late  expedition  of  the  British  to  Egypt,  which  terminated  in  the 
expulsion  of  the  French  from  that  country,  when  the  English  soldiers  land- 
ed, they  dng,  after  the  custom  of  the  country,  holloxu  places  on  the  shore^ 
us  retreats  from  the  lieat  and  insects.  On  this  very  ground  the  French 
cavalry  charged,  but  falling  among;  these  holes,  they  wrrp  thrown  into  co«- 
Ofsion,  and  rompletely  routed,    rnir 


432  RELATING  TO  TflKIK  DIET,  kc. 

are  in  great  number,  have,  Fiowever,  no  other  ornament. 
The  places,  where  the  chlssel  has  passed,  are  smooth  ; 
but  the  rest  has  the  natural  shape  of  the  rock."  As  to 
the  thir4  thing,*'  their  repairing  to  dunghills,  it  can  only 
be  understood,  I  think,  in  the  manner  I  have  given  an  ac- 
count of.f  t 
^  After  this,  everj  one  will  see  the  propriety  of  that  pas- 
sage, 1  Sam.  ii-  8,  He  raiseth  up  the  poor  out  of  the  dust, 
lifleth  up  the  beggar  from  the  dunghill,  to  set  them  among 
princes,  and  to  make  them  inherit  the  throne  of  glory. 
He  raiseth  the  beggar  from  the  dunghill,  out  of  a  cottage, 
that  is,  in  which  heaps  of  dried  dung  are  piled  up  for  fuel, 
as  some  of  the  worst  accommodated  of  our  poor  practise 
with  respect  to  the  turf  of  his  country  :  or,  rather,  he  rais^ 
eth  up  a  poor  exile,  forced  to  beg  his  bread  in  his  wander- 
ings, and  to  lodge  in  some  outhouse  where  dung  is  laid  up, 
out  of  the  city,  in  order  to  set  him  on  the  throne  of  a  roy- 
al palace  built  in  the  midst  of  it. 

The  applicableness  of  this  account,  concerning  the  fre- 
quent burning  of  dung  in  the  East,  to  the  case  of  Ezekiel,J 

•  p.  22,  23,  vol.  i. 

t  The  Eastern  management  Pliilo  refers  to,  in  the  other  part  of  this  pas- 
sage, is  what  several  authors  have  agreed  in,  that  their  houses  art  at  a  dis- 
tance from  their  shops,  which  shops  are  ranged  on  each  side  of  a  covered 
street,  which  they  call  a  bazar,  shut  up  by  a  gate  at  each  end.  In  these 
shops  they  manufacture  and  sell  their  goods. 

+  Ch.  iv.  Monsieur  Voltaire  seems  to  be  extremely  scandalized  at  this 
circumstance,  for  he  has  repeated  the  objection  over  and  over  again  in  his 
writings.  He  supposes  somewhere,  that  the  denying  the  Providence  of 
God  is  extreme  impiety  j  yet  in  other  places  he  supposes  the  prophetic 
intimation  to  Kzekiel,  that  he  should  prepare  his  bread  with  human  diwg, 
as  expressive  of  the  hardships  Israel  were  about  to  undergo,  could  not  come 
from  God,  being  incompatible  with  his  Majesty:  God  then,  it  naturally 
follows,  never  did  reduce  by  his  Providence  any  poor  mortals  into  such  & 
state,  as  to  be  obliged  to  use  human  dung  in  preparing  their  bread  ;  never 
could  do  It ;  but  those  that  are  acquainted  with  the  calamities  of  human  life, 
will  nov  be  so  positive,  upon  this  point,  as  this  lively  JVenchman.  To 
make  the  objection  as  strong  as  possible,  by  raising  the  disgust  of  the  ele- 
gant part  of  the  world  to  the  greatest  height,  he,  with  his  usual  ingenious- 
ness,  supposes  the  dung  was  to  be  eaten  with  the  bread  perpared  after  this 
manner,  which  would  form  au  admirable  confection,  Comme  )1  n'est  point 
d'usage  de  manger  de  telle?  confitures  sur  son  pain,  la  plupart  des  hommes 
trouvent  ces  commandcments  indigaes  de  la  Majest*  divine.    La  Raison 


RELATING  TO  THEIR  DIET,  &c.  4^31 

13  moch  more  visible.  Commentators  have  observed 
something  of  it,  but  I  do  not  remember  to  have  met  with 
any  who  have  thoroughly  entered  into  the  spirit  of  the  di- 
vine command;  they  only  coldly  observe,  that  several 
nations  make  use  of  cowdung  for  fuel.  He  was  (irst  en- 
joined to  make  use  of  human  dung  in  the  preparation  of 
his  food,  though  at  length  the  Prophet  obtained  permission 
to  use  cowdung,  for  the  baking  that  bread  which  was  to 
be  expressive  of  the  miserable  food  Israel  should  be 
obliged  to  eat,  in  their  dispersion  among  the  Gentiles: 
had  this  been  ordered  at  first,  it  would  by  no  means  have 
sufficiently  expressed  those  necessities,  and  that  fillhineas 
in  their  way  of  living,  to  which  they  were  to  be  reduced ; 
for  very  many  of  the  Eastern  people  Very  commonly  use 
cowdung  in  the  baking  of  their  bread  ;  therefore  he  was 
ordered  to  make  use  of  human  dung,  which  was  terribly 
significant  of  the  extremities  to  which  they  were  to  be  re- 
duced. No  nation  made  use  of  that  miserable  kind  of  fuel, 
whereas  the  other  was  very  common,  though  it  is  not 
very  agreeable  for  the  purpose,  the  bread  so  baked  being 
burnt,  smoky,  and  disagreeably  tasted. 

If  cowdung  was  very  much  in  use  in  Palestine  for  fuel, 
as  we  have  reason  to  think  wood  was  not  more  plentiful 
there  anciently,  when  the  country  was  much  fuller  of  in- 
habitants, than  it  is  now,  its  extreme  slowness  in  burning 
must  make  the  quickness  of  the  fire  of  thorns  very  observ- 
able, and  give  a  liveliness  to  that  passage,  As  the  crack- 
ling of  thorns  under  a  pot,  so  is  the  laughter  of  the  fool  f'^ 
and  to  some  other  places,  which  has  not  been,  I  think, 
duly  observed.  The  contrast  is  extremely  remarkable. 
La  Roque,  taking  notice  of  the  excessive  slowness  of  the 

par  Alphabet,  Art.  Ezechiel.  Tlie  eating  bread  baked  by  being  covered 
up  under  such  embers  weuld  most  certainly  be  great  misery,  though  the 
ashes  were  swept  and  blown  off  with  care  ;  but  they  could  hardly  be  said  to 
cat  a  composition  of  bread  and  liuman  excrements.  Witt»  tlic  same  kind 
of  liberty  he  tells  us,  that  cowdung'  is  sometimes  eaten  through  all  Desert 
Arabia,  Lettre  du  Traducteur  du  Contique  des  Cantiqiies,  which  is  only 
true  as  explained  to  mean  nothing  more  than  that  their  bread  is,  not  un- 
frequently,  baked  under  the  embers  of  CDwdung :  but  is  eating  bread  so 
baked  eating  cowdung  *  *  Eeclcs,  vii.  6. 

VOL.  I.  ."ii 


434  RELATING  TO  THEIR  DIET,  &c. 

one,*  informs  us,  that  it  is  a  coramon  thing  among  the 
Arabs,  on  this  account,  to  threaten  a  person  with  burning 
him  with  cowdung,  when  they  would  menace  him  with  a 
dreadfully  lingering  punishment ;  on  the  other  hand, 
every  one  must  be  apprized  of  the  shortlived  violence  of 
the  fire  of  thorns,  furze,  and  things  of  that  kind:  but  to 
make  the  thought  complete,  it  is  requisite  to  add,  that 
cowdung,  this  very  slow  fuel,  is  that  which  is  commonly 
lifted  ;  thorns,  &c.  less  frequently.f 

But  when  they  do  use  this  latter  kind  of  fuelyit  seemt 
to  be  under  their  pots,  which  further  illustrates  the  ex' 
pression,  and  accounts  for  the  particularity  that  appears 
in  the  mentioning  of  pots,  as  il;  seems  otherwise  to  have 
been  sufficient  to  have  said  in  general,  as  the  crackling 
of  thorns,  so  is  the  laughter  of  the  fool.  And  till  this 
thought  occurred,  I  must  confess,  I  did  not  know  what  to 
make  of  that  account  of  d*Arvieux,  when,  in  describing 
the  Arab  methods  of  dressing  their  food,  he  tells  us,  they 
sometimes  put  a  whole  lamb,  or  kid,  into  a  kettle,  covered 
up  close,  over  a  fire  of  vine  twigs, J  &c.  I  could  not  con- 
ceive why  he  should  mention  the  sort  of  fuel  they  made 
Qseof  with  such  precision  ;  why  vine  twigs  rather  than  any 
other  sort  of  wood  ?  why  any  thing  more  than  the  word 
fire  in  general?  The  true  reason  of  this  particularity  I 
have  since  thought,  is,  that  the  fuel  he  saw  used  almost 
universally  among  them,  was  cowdung,  but  that  a  quicker 
fire  being  necessary  for  the  stewing  a  whole  lamb  or  kid, 
he  saw  them  make  use  of  wood  upon  that  occasion,  and 
it  happened  to  be  vine  twigs,  he  set  it  down  in  his  papers, 
from  whence  la  Roque,  not  distinguishing  between  the 
simplicity  of  private  memorandums,  and  what  is  fit  to  be 
published  in  an  extract  drawn  from  them,  mentions  this 
particular  circumstance,  though  without  doubt  a  fire  of 
thorns,  furze,  or  any  other  quick  burning  sort  of  fuel 
would  have  done  as  well.  It  serves,  however,  to  illus- 
trate the  words  of  the  royal  preacher,  as  well  as  Ps*  Iviii. 

*Voy.   dans  la  Pal.  p.  44,  note, 
t  l)r.  Russell  observes,  MS.  note,  "  Z>«w^  is  preseryed  by  way  of  store, 
bat  other  fuel  u  preferred  whenever  it  can  be  found  on  thie  spot."    Edit. 
^  Voy.  dans  la  Pal.  p.  198. 


RELATING  TO  THEIR  DIET,  fee  435 

9,  and  Job  xli.  31  :  cowdung,  a  very  slow  faint  fire,  be- 
ing used  for  fuel  very  commonly ;  but  thorns,  or  some- 
thing of  that  kind,  often  for  boiling.* 

In  like  manner  Sir  John  Chardin  observes  io  his  MS. 
note,  Ps.  Iviii.  "  that  on  account  of  the  scarcity  of  wood, 
they  burn  most  commonly  in  Persia,  heath,  &c.  and  that 
these  substances  are  wont  to  crackle  ;  and  that  they  use 
thorns  to  make  their  pot  boil.'^  He  cites  also  Amos  iv. 
II,  and  Zech.  iii.  2,  as  well  as  Eccles.  vii.  6,  as  having 
some  relation  to  this  observation.  If  I  comprehend  his 
thought,  which  is  indeed  expressed  in  a  very  short  man- 
ner, he  supposes  the  Prophets,  in  the  two  first  places, 
compare  those  of  whom  they  were  speaking,  to  such  small 
twigs,  as  must  in  a  few  minutes  have  been  consumed,  had 
they  not  been  snatched  out  of  the  burning,  and  not  to  those 
battens,  or  large  branches  of  great  trees,  we  are  wont  to 
burn  in  these  northern  countries,  and  which  will  lie  long 
on  the  fire  before  they  are  reduced  to  ashes.  And  it 
must  be  confessed  the  image  coiisidered  after  this  man- 
ner, is  much  more  strong  and  lively  than  otherwise  it 
would  be. 

The  same  thought  is  applicable  to  Isai.  vii.  4:  only 
there,  these  slender  firebrands  are  supposed  to  be  smok- 
ing; that  is,  as  I  apprehend,  having  the  steam  rising  from 
one  end  with  force,  from  the  violence  of  the  fire  burning 
at  the  other,  which,  in  such  a  state,  must  soon  reduce 
them  to  ashes.  How  lively  the  image  I  The  remains  of 
two  small  twigs,  burning  with  violence  at  one  end,  as  ap- 
pears by  the  strong  steaming  of  the  other,  sure  therefore 
soon  to  disappear,  reduced  into  ashes :  so  shall  these  two 
kings  soon  be  no  more.  The  curious  Yitringa  sadly  fails, 
I  think,  in  his  explanation  of  this  metaphor. 

As  they  have  such  a  scarcity  of  fuel,  they  make  use 
not  only  of  cowdung,  but  of  parings  of  fruit,  at  Aleppo, 

•  On  this  passage  Dr.  Russell  obterrcs,  MS.  note,  "  Where  Ttne  twi^s 
were  to  be  fonnrf,  no  doubt  a  varietj  of  bruahwood  might  be  procured 
The  vine  twigs,  however,  impart  a  less  disagreeable  tft6l«,  and  the  aslics 
are  more  useful  for  washing  their  linen."        Knir, 


436  RELATING  TO  THEIR  DIET,  &e. 

Dr.  Russell  fells  us,^and  such  like  things:  doubtless  he 
means  withered  stalks  of  herbs  and  flowers.f  Indeed,  he 
onlj  speaks  of  these  things  as  used  for  heating  their  baths ; 
but  as  cowdung  is,  we  know,  by  other  authors,  used  for 
baking,  no  reason,  sure,  can  be  imagined,  why  these  other 
things  should  not  be  used  for  the  same  purpose,  where 
Ihey  were  to  be  had  :  and  Dr.  Shaw,  I  remember, express- 
ly tells  us, J  that  myrtle,  rosemary,  and  other  plants,  are 
made  use  of  in  Burbary,  to  heat  their  ovens,  as  well  as 
bagnios.  Does  not  this  give  us  a  clear  comment  on  those 
words  of  our  liORD,  Matt.  vi.  28,  29,  30  ?  Consider  the 
lilies  ofthejield  hoiv  they  grow  :  ihey  toil  nottiieither  do 
they  spin.  And  yet  I  say  unto  you,  that  even  Solomon, 
in  aU  /jis  glory,  was  not  arrayed  like  one  of  these. 
Wherefore  if  God  so  clothe  the  grass  of  the  field,  which 
today  is,  and  tomorrow  is  cast  into  the  oven,  shall  he  not 
much  more  clothe  you,  O  ye  of  little  faith  ?  The  grass  of 
the  field  here,  apparently,  is  to  be  understood  to  include 
ihe  lilies  of  which  our  Lord  had  been  speaking,  conse- 
quently herbs  in  general :  Critics  have  remarked  this  large 
sense  of  the  word  ;^^o^1of  j||  nor  can  it  be  with  any  show  of 
reason  pretended,  that  our  Lord  is  speaking  of  the  mor- 
row in  the  rigid  sense  of  the  word,  the  day  immediately 
following,  but  of  a  little  time  after.  Behold,  says  our 
Lord,  these  lilies  of  the  field,  how  beauteous  are  their 
vestments,  how  exquisitely  are  they  perfumed.  Solomon 
in  all  his  glory  was  not  thus  arrayed,  thus  perfumed  !  yet 
magnificent  as  they  appear  one  day,  they  are  in  a  manner 
the  next  thrown  into  the  oven,  their  dried  stalks  are,  with 
the  dried  stalks  of  other  plants  employed  in  heating  the 
ovens  of  the  villages  round  about  us  ;  and  will  not  God 
much  more  clothe  you  that  are  my  disciples? 

This  account  of  the  burning  these  things  may,  perhaps, 
be  of  some  use  to  throw  light  on  those  passages  of  the 
Mishnah,^  which  speak   of  savoury,  hyssop,  and  thyme, 

•  Vol.  i.  p.  38.  j-  "  He  does  so  ;  whatever  is  thrown  into  the  dust- 

hole,  or  into  the  street."     Dr.  Russell's  MS.  note.  Edit. 

\  P,85.  II  See  Leigh's  Crit.  Sac.  upon  the  word 

§  Vide  Misnnm  in  tit.  Shebiitji. 


RELATING  TO  THEIR  DIET,  &e.  4^ 

under  the  notion  of  wood,  or  of  gathering  Ihe  leaves  of 
vines  and  reeds,  both  green  and  drj,  which  dry  leaves  of 
vines  can  hardly  be  supposed  to  have  been  gathered  with 
any  other  design  than  for  fuel.  But  of  how  little  conse- 
quence soever  the  illustrating  the  Mishnah  may  be  thought 
to  be,  the  observation  will  not  be  unacceptable  to  an  at- 
tentive reader  of  his  Bible,  especially  if  he  should  remark 
how  much  ingenious  authors  have  been  embarrassed  with 
this  passage  of  St.  Matthew.  One  of  them  in  particular, 
after  having  changed  the  word  oven,  in  his  translation, 
into  the  word/Mrnacc  or  still,  gives  us  this  note  :*  "  I  ap- 
prehend that  this  may  be  as  properly  the  signification  of 
the  word  xAiQxvoVf  as  oven,  and  that  the  sense  will  then  ap- 
pear to  be  more  easy  ;  for  it  can  hardly  be  supposed,  that 
grass  or  flowers  should  be  thrown  into  the  oven  the  day 
after  they  are  cut  down ;  unless  it  was  the  custom  to  heat 
their  ovens  with  new  hay,  which  seems  not  very  natural." 
Not  very  natural  indeed,  were  hay  made  in  those  coun- 
tries, which  we  are  assured  by  authors  in  general  is  sel- 
dom or  never  done  !  nor  does  it  seem  much  more  natural 
to  nae,  to  throw  grass  into  a  still,f  if  it  could  be  proved  that 
the  Greek  word  signifies  a  still  as  well  as  an  oven.  And 
I  am  afraid  that  even  as  to  flowers  themselves  from  many 
of  which  the  Eastern  people  at  this  time  distil  various 
odoriferous  waters,  and  might  do  the  same  anciently,  the 
thought  would  not  be  very  conformable  to  the  views  of 
our  Lord,  and  consequently  not  what  he  meant:  for  his 
sentiment  here,  without  controversy,  is,  that  if  God  covers 
with  so  much  glory  things  of  no  further  value  than  to  serve 
the  meanest  uses,  will  he  not  take  care  of  his  servants  who 
are  so  precious  in  his  eye,  and  designed  for  such  import- 
ant services  in  the  world?  consequently  he  cannot  be 
supposed  to  be  speaking  of  precious  flowers,  distilled 
cither  for  medicinal  purposes,  or  to  make  rich  perfumes; 

•  See  Dod.  Fam.  Exp.  vol.  i.  p.  25C.  fDr.  Itusscll  queries, 

whetlier  the  Jews  in  the  time  of  our  Lord  had  any  notion  oi  distillation. 
«' Herbs,  flowers,  &CC.  he  observes,  arc  not  put  into  the  furnace  the  day 
they  arc  gathered,  but  are  first  permitted  to  dry.  Herbage,  when  cut  down, 
is  dry  in  twentyfour  hours  ;  but  the  shrubs,  thorns,  fcic.  are  generally  dry 
liefore  they  are  cut  down."    MS.  note.  Edit. 


438  RELATING  TO  I'ilElR  DIET,  &c. 

but  of  (hose  of  which  men  make  no  higher  use,  than  thej 
do  of  cowdung  and  stubble.  «!*> 

.#■ 
OBSERVATION  XXI.  r 

■-{«■»?■  J.   i  '!«» 

METHOD    or    SAVING    FUEL.  ^ 

The  scarcity  of  fuel  occasions  another  particular  man- 
agement among  the  Eastern  people,  of  which  Rauwolif 
gives  us  the  following  account:  "  They  make  in  their 
tents  or  houses  a  hole  about  a  foot  and  a  half  deep,  where- 
in they  put  their  earthen  pipkins  or  pots,  with  the  meat 
in  them  closed  up,  so  that  they  are  in  the  half  above  the 
middle:  three  fourth  parts  thereof  they  lay  about  with 
stones,  and  the  fourth  part  is  left  open,  through  which 
they  fling  in  their  dried  dung,  and  also  sometimes  small 
twigs  and  straws,  when  they  can  have  them,  which  burn 
immediately,  and  give  so  great  a  heat,  that  the  pot  grow- 
eth  so  hot  as  if  it  stood  in  the  middle  of  a  lighted  coal 
heap,  so  that  they  boil  their  meat  with  a  little  fire,  quicker 
than  we  do  ours  with  a  great  one  on  our  hearths."* 

As  the  Israelites  must  have  had  as  much  cause  to  be 
sparing  of  their  fuel  as  any  people,  and  especially  when 
they  were  journeying  in  the  Wilderness,  the  preceding 
quotation  may  be  believed  to  be  a  better  comment  on  Lev. 
xi.  35,  than  is  to  be  found  in  any  of  the  writings  of  those 
that  are  called  commentators.  One  of  thesef  supposes 
the  word  translated  ranges  for  pots,  signifies  an  earthen 
pot  to  boil  meat  in  with  a  lid  ;  another  gives  it  feet ;  but 
such  vessels  come  under  the  direction  of  the  thirtythird 
verse.  Nor  does  the  original  word  requiring  its  destruc- 
tion agree  with  these  explications  ;  for  it  does  not  signify 
to  destroy  by  breaking  to  pieces,  as  a  vessel  is  broken,  but 
by  breaking  down,  as  altars,  houses,  walls  of  cities,  &c. 
are  broken  down,  and  destroyed.  This  perfectly  agrees 
with  Rauwolff's  description  of  the  Eastern  apparatus  for 
boiling  a  pot,  which,  though  not  expressed  in  (he  happiest 

»*  P.  l,?e,  t  Vide  Poll  Syn.  in  loe. 


RELATING  TO  THEIU  DIET,  &c.  43^ 

manner  by  h\»  translators,  jet  is  thus  far  sufficiently  clear, 
"three  fourth  parts  thereof,"  sajs  he,  "they  lay  about 
with  stones,"  which  little  building  this  law  of  Moses  re- 
quired to  be  broken  down.  How  clear  is  this  !  What  idea 
our  English  translators  of  Leviticus  designed  to  convey 
by  the  term  ranges  for  pots,  I  do  not  well  know,  but  some- 
thing distinct  from  a  pot  was  evidently  designed  ;  and 
though  it  might  be  thought  strange  that  any  thing  of  build- 
ing should  be  used,  by  those  that  lived  such  a  flitting  kind 
of  life  as  the  Israelites  in  the  Wilderness,  for  the  boiling 
their  pots,  yet  we  6nd,  by  RauwolfT,  the  Arabs  make  use 
of  such  an  apparatus,  and  he  gives  us  some  description 
of  it.* 

OBSERVATION    XXII. 

BAKERS   AVD  BAKEHOUSES  IN  THE  EAST. 

But  though  an  oven  was  designed  only  to  serve  a 
single  family,  and  to  bake  for  them  no  more  than  the 
bread  of  one  day,  in  ancient  times,  which  circumstance 
ought  to  be  recollected,  in  order  to  enter  into  the  force  of 
Lev.  xxvi.  26,  and  is  an  usage  that  still  continues  in  some 
places  of  the  East ;  yet  it  appears  that  there  were  ancient-^ 
ly,  as  Ih^re  now  are,  some  public  bakehouses.  So  we 
read  of  the6flA:crs*  s/rf e/,Jer.  xxxvii.21.  This  might  pos- 
sibly be  only  a  temporary  regulation  to  supply  the  wants 
of  the  soldiers,  assembled  from  other  places  to  defend  Jeru- 
salem, who  might  receive  daily  a  proper  quantity  of  bread 
ttom  the  royal  bakehouses ;  as  at  Algiers,  at  this  time, 
according  to  Dr.  Shaw,f  besides  some  money,  their  sold- 
iers that  are  unmarried  receive  each  of  them  a  number 
of  loaves  every  day.  And  if  so,  nothing  could  be  more 
natural  than  for  the  king  to  order  Jeremiah  a  piece,  or  a 
cake,  of  bread  from  thence,  every  day,  after  the  same 
manner.  But  however  this  may  be,  Pitts  informs  us,J 
that  they  have  public  bakehouses  at   Algiers  for  people 

*  For  a  full  detcription  of  ihis  baking  apparatus  among  the  Arabs,  see 
aote  ea  Oba.  xi.  p.  4G«-  t  P.  3.53,  *  p.  05. 


440  RELATING  TO  THEIR  DIET,  &c. 

in  common,  the  women  only  preparing  the  dough  at  home,* 
and  other  persons  making  it  their  business  to  bake  it,  who 
send  their  boys  for  that  purpose  about  the  streets,  to 
give  notice  of  their  being  ready  to  take  people's  bread, 
and  to  carry  it  to  the  bakehouses  ;  "  upon  this  the  women 
within  come,  and  knock  at  the  inside  of  the  door,  which 
the  boy  hearing,  makes  toward  the  house.  The  women 
open  the  door  a  very  little  way,  and  hiding  their  faces, 
deliver  the  cakes  to  him  ;  which,  when  baked,  he  brings 
to  the  door  again,  and  the  women  receive  them  in  the 
same  manner  as  they  gave  them." 

Pitts  adds  to  this,  that  they  bake  their  cakes  every  day, 
or  every  other  day,  and  give  the  boy  who  brings  the 
bread,  a  piece,  or  little  cake,  for  the  baking,  which  the 
baker  sells. 

Small  as  the  Eastern  loaves  are,  they  break  them,  it 
seems,  and  give  a  piece  only,  according  to  this,  to  the  ba- 
ker, as  a  gratification  for  his  trouble.  This  will  illustrate 
Ezekiel's  account  of  the  false  prophetesses  receiving  as 
gratuities  pieces  of  bread  ;f  they  are  compensations  still 
used  in  the  East,  but  compensations  of  the  meanest  kind, 
and  for  services  of  the  lowest  sort. 

OBSERVATION  XXIII. 

VARIOUS  PREPARATlOrrS  OF  CORN  FOR  FOOD. 

\  But  they  have  other  ways  of  preserving  their  corn  for 
food,  besides  making  it  into  bread.  Burgle,J  Dr.  Russell 
tells  us,  is  very  commonly  used  among  the  Christians  of 
Aleppo :  and  in  a  note  he  informs  us,  that  this  "  Burgle 
is  wheat  boiled,  then  bruised  by  a  mill,  so  as  to  take  the 
husk  oflf;  then  dried,  and  kept  for  use.  The  usual  way 
of  dressing  it,  is  either  by  boiling  it  like  rice  into  a  pillaw, 
or  making  it  into  balls  with  meat  and  spices;  and  either 
fried  or  boiled,  these  balls  are  called  cubby."  RauwolfTH 
and  Ockley  speak  of  the  like  preparation  under  the  name 

*  "  It  is  the  same,  says  Dr.  Russell,    at  Aleppo,   each  house   makes  its 
own  bread"    MS.  note,     Edit. 
+  Ezek.  xiii.  19.  i  Vol.  i.  p.  lir.  ()  P.  97. 


RELATING?  TO  THEIR  DIET,  &c.  441 

ofsawik;*  but   the  first  speaks  of  it  as  prepared  from 
barlej,  and  the  other  from  barlej  and  rice  as  well  as  wheat. 

Again  Jones,  in  his  account  of  the  diet  of  the  Moors  of 
West  Barbarj,f  makes  mention  of  the  flour  of  parched 
barley,  which  he  says  is  the  chief  provision  they  make 
for  travelling,  and  that  some  of  them  use  it  for  their  diet 
at  home,  as  well  as  in  journeying.  I  will  set  down  his 
words.  "  What  is  most  used  by  travellers,  is  siimeei,  tu- 
meet,  or  flour  of  parched  barley  for  limereece.  These  are 
not  Arabian,  but  Shilha  names ;  so  I  believe  it  is  of  longer 
standing  than  the  Mohamedans  in  that  part  of  Afric. 
They  are  all  three  made  of  parched  barley  flour,  which 
they  carry  in  a  leather  satchel.  Zumeet  is  the  flour  mix- 
ed with  honey,  butter,  and  spice  ;  tumeet  is  the  same  flour 
done  up  with  origan  oil  :  and  limereece  is  only  mixed 
with  water,  and  so  drank ;  this  quenches  thirst  much  bet- 
ter than  water  alone,  satisfies  an  hungry  appetite,  cools 
and  refreshes  tired  and  weary  spirits,  overcoming  those  ill 
effects  a  hot  sun  and  fatiguing  journey  occasion."  He 
says  also,  that  among  the  mountaineers  of  Suse  this  is  used 
for  their  diet  at  home,  as  well  as  when  they  are  on  a  jour- 
ney. 

May  not  one  or  other  of  these  sorts  of  food  be  what  is 
meant  in  Scripture,  by  what  we  render  parched  corn? 
Russell  and  Ockley  speak  of  the  sawik  or  burgle  as  dried ; 
and  Jones  expressly  calls  the  chief  provision  the  Moors  of 
West  Barbary  use  in  travelling,  thejloiir  of  parched  barley^ 

Dr.  Shaw  is,  I  know,  of  a  different  opinion.  He  sup- 
posesj  the  kali  of  the  Scriptures,  which  he  translates 
parched  pulse,  means  parched  cicers,  which  he  says  are 
in  the  greatest  repute,  after  they  are  parched  in  pans  and 
ovens  ;  and  adds,  as  a  strong  confirmation,  that  there  is 
not,  as  far  as  he  has  been  informed,  any  other  pulse  pre- 
pared in  this  manner:  but  there  is  such  a  thing  as  dried 

*  Satoik  is  quite  a  diiferent  dish  :  Mr.  H.  confounds  two  distinct  things. 
Burgle  is  never  parched  like  the  corn,  which  is  thus  treated  when  in  Uje 
ear.         Edit. 

t  Miscell.  Cur.  vol.  iii.  p.  390,  391.  See  also  Phil.  Trans,  abr.  toI.  3!, 
part  2.  ch.  3.  art.  35.  V.  HO. 

VOL.    J.  .§6 


44^  RELATING  TO  THEIB  DIET,  fecc. 

corn,  and  of  corn  the  Scriptures  may  speak,  and  are  inostf 
naturally  understood  to  speak.  This  ingenious  author's 
own  account  of  the  parched  cicers,  affords  me  a  strong 
objeciion  against  his  supposition  :  for  he  tells  us,  they 
never  constitute  a  dish  by  themselves,  but  are  strewed 
singly,  as  a  garnish  over  other  dishes.  Rauwolff*  contra- 
dicts the  cicers  being  the  only  pulse  that  is  parched.;  for 
he  affirms,  that  the  people  of  the  East  dress  the  orohiis 
after  the  same  manner  ;  however,  he  allows  the  parched 
cicers  being  in  great  repute,  for  he  says,  they  have  them 
brought  to  table,  with  cheese,  after  their  meals,  instead  of 
preserves  or  fruit,  as  cibebs,  hazelnuts,  and  the  like,  for 
they  eat  very  mellow,  and  have  a  fine  saltish  taste.  He 
repeats,  in  another  place,f  this  account  of  the  cicers  being 
used  in  those  countries  as  part  of  the  dessert.  Nor  is  this 
a  modern  thing  :  St.  Jerom  speaks  of  parched  cicers,  in 
his  commentary  on  St.  Malthew,J  as  used  in  desserts,  and 
for  presents  of  smaller  value,  and  joins  them  with  raisins, 
and  other  kinds  of  fruit.  But  would  Boaz  have  carried 
things  of  this  kind  to  his  reapers?  Ruth  ii.  14.  Or,  would 
it  have  been  recorded  of  the  children  of  Israel,  Josh.  v. 
11,  that,  upon  their  entrance  into  Canaan,  they  eat  un- 
leavened cakes  of  the  old  corn  of  the  land,  parched  cicers, 
and  upon  that  manna  ceased?  are  cicers  of  such  moment 
to  the  support  of  life  ?||  cicers,  which  never  constitute  a 
dish  by  themselves,  and  are  only  the  garnishing  of  other 
dishes,  or  part  of  a  dessert  ?  We  may  be  satisfied  then,  I 
think,  that  the  word  kali  does  not  signify  parched  cicers,  or 
any  other  pulse,  but  corn,  and  somehow  or  other  parched. § 
Barley  is  the  grain,  it  should  seem,  that  Moses  speaks 

•  Travels  published  by  Ray,  torn,  i.  C8.  t  P-  98. 

+  Cap.  21.  II  Antjq.  lib.  iii.  cap.  10.  $  Perhaps  it  was 

neither  :  for,  since  this  book  was  first  published,  T  find  that  HasseUjuist,  ir. 
journeying  from  Acra  to  Seide,  saw  a  shepherd  eating  his  dinner,  consist- 
ing of  half  ripe  eurii  oftvhcat  roasted,  which  he  eat  with  as  good  an  appe- 
tite as  a  Turk  does  his  pillaw.  He  tieated  Hasselquist,  it  seeras,  with  the 
same  dish  ;  and  afterward  gave  him  milk  fronj  the  goats  to  drink.  Such 
sort  of  food,  this  auihor  further  tells,  is  much  eaten  in  Egypt,  by  the  poor, 
bein^  ears  of  maize,  or  Turkish  wheat,  and  of  their  dura,  a  kind  of  millet. 
He  speaks  of  it,  however,  8s  far  inferior  to  bread  :  "  After  all,  how  great 
's  the  difference  betwi.\t  good  bread,  and  ha\{  ripe  ears  of  wheat  roasted  '." 


RfiLATINC;  TO  T«EIR  DIET,  &v.  443 

<ef  as  parched,  Lev.  ii.  14,  for  he  is  speaking  of  fruit  trees, 
and  barlej  is  reaped  iu  the  Holy  Land  before  the  wheal: 
and  so  Josephus  understood  it.  But  whether  iu  the  lorm 
of  sawik,  or  of  the  Moorish  tlour  of  parched  barley,  i« 
another  question.  If  we  are  rather  disposed  to  think  it 
was  the  fiour  of  parched  bailey,  it  may  be  proper  tor  us 
to  observe  how  it  was  distinguished  frooi  common  liour: 
this  last  is  raw;  that  made  froai  barley  parched  was  ready 
to  be  used  immediately,  without  any  other  preparation 
than  mixing  it  with  oil,  with  tjutter,  or  wiih  honey.  The 
Moors  now  think  it  proper  for  travelling,  on  this  account,  I 
suppose ;  and,  for  the  same  reason,  it  must  have  been 
agreeable  for  Jesse  to  send  into  the  camp  to  his  children, 
and  for  Abigail  to  present  to  David  and  his  men,  who  was 
frequently  obliged  to  pass  from  place  to  place.  J  ones's  ac- 
count may  also  teach  us,  the  propriety  of  what  is  added  at 
the  close  of  the  list  of  provisions,  sent  by  the  nobles  on  the 
other  side  of  Jordan  to  king  David :  They  brought  beds, 
and  basins,  and  earthen  vessels^  and  wheat,  and  barley, 
and Jlour,  and  parched  cornj  and  beans,  and  lentiles,  and 
•parched  pulse,  and  honey,  and  butter,  and  sheep,  and 
cheese  of  kine,  for  David  and  for  the  people  that  were 
with  him  to  eat ;  for  they  said,  The  people  are  hungry^ 
and  weary,  and  thirsty,  in  the  wilderness.  2  Sam,  xvii. 
28,  29,  Which  of  all  these  things  was  designed  (o  quench 
their  thirst?  Jones  observes,  that  the  flour  of  parched 
barley  mixed  with  water,  is  thought  to  quench  thirst  bet- 
ter than  water  alone,  to  satisfy  hunger,  and  to  cool  and 
refresh  tired  and  weary  spirits:*  it  might  be  sent  there- 
fore to  David  with  a  view  to  relieve  the  people,  as  thirsty 
and  tired,  as  well  as  hungry.  It  appears,  in  like  manner, 
to  have  been  a  very  proper  provision  for  the  repast  of  la- 
bourers in  the  harvest  field,  or  those  employed  in  sheep- 
shearing;  and  must  have  been  very  useful  in  a  time  when 
the  old  corn  was   spent,   and   the  new  not  suflicienlly 

are  liij  words,  p.  166,  167.  This  account  will  very  clearly  explain  some 
passages  of  Scripture,  which  arc  more  naturally  understood  of  roasted  haU' 
ripe  ears  of  barley  or  of  wheat :  but  others  still  seem  to  refer  to  the  sa^vik. 
and  Moorish  flower. 

•  This  very  drink,  Ur.  Kussell  observes,  MS.  note,  is  used  there  wfcrcrn. 
Edit. 


444  RELATING  TO  THEIR  DIET,  kc 

ripened  to  be  made  bread  of:*  on  which  occasions  only 
mention  is  made  of  it  in  Scripture. 

But  if  this  Jewish  parched  corn  is  to  be  nnderstood    of 
Ihe  flour  of  parched   barlej,   it   does  not   thence  follow, 
that  burgle,  sawik,  or  boiled    wheat   dried,  was  unknown 
among  them;  and  I  have  been  ready  to  think,  that  this 
modern  management  of  corn  will  give  light  to  a  remarka- 
ble passage  of  the   history    of  David,   the  concealment* 
I  mean,   of  his  two    spies  in   a   well,   whose  mouth    was 
covered  with  corn,f  2  Sam.    xvii.   19.     The  exposing 
corn  in  this  manner  must  have  been  common  in   Judea, 
else  it  would   rather  have   given  suspicion  than  safety. 
But  what  ground  corn,  for  so  we  translate   it,  should  be  ^ 
laid  out  for  in  the  open   air,  if  we  suppose  it  was  meal,  j 
cannot  easily  be  imagined.     Bishop  Patrick  supposes  it  j* 
was  corn  newly  threshed  out,  which  she  pretended  to  dry,  > 
though  no  such  thing  is   practised  among  us  in  a  much 
moister  country  ;  and  the  word  is  elsewhere  used  to  sig- 
nify corn  beaten  in  a  very  different  manner,  Prov.  xxvii.  r 
22. J     Sanctius  and   Mariana  both   observed,^  that    the, 
word  there  expresses  barley  with  the  husk  taken  offj pearl 
or  French  barley  as  we  call  it ;  but  as  I  suppose,  the 
Bishop  did  not  imagine  there  was  any  other  use  for  such 
sort  of  barley  than  as  a  medicine,  as  among  us,  he  could  not 
think  probable  that  the  woman  should  have  such  a   quan-  - 
tity  of  it :  but  these  accounts  of  burgle  and  sawik  remove 
the  difficulty  ;  and  it  should  seem,  from  this  passage,   the 
preparation  of  corn  after  this  manner  is  as  ancient  as   the 
time  of  David  at   least.     To   this  may   be   added,   that 
quantitiesof  the  sawik  are  prepared  at  once,   in  order  fo 
be  laid  up  in  store  jH  whereas  corn  there  is  usually  ground 

•  Pai'chcd  ears  of  corn  must  have  been  laore  so,  such  as  Hassclquist  de- 
scribes, mentioned  in  the  last  note, 

•J- "This  in  all  probability,  says  Dr.  Russell,  MS.  note,  vas  burgle,  in 
preparing  of  whicli,  after  it  has  been  softened  i«  -warra  \vater,  it  is  com- 
monly laid  out  in  the  courtyard  to  dry        Edit. 

:t  The  passage  in  Proverbs,  he  further  adds,   alludes   cleai'ly    to   hurdle, 
vhich is  thus  pounded  in  a  trough  or  mortar  with  a  wooden  pestle-    Edit 
§  Vide  Poli  Syn.  in  loc. 
Ij  See  Rauvolft'in  Ray's  Coll.  of  Travels,  torn  i.  p.  97*. 


RELATING  TO  THEIR  DIET,  he.  44£» 

into  meal  in  small  parcels,  the  people  of  those  countries 
baking  every  day,  and  grinding  their  corn  as  they  want 
it.  What  is  more,  d'Arvieux,  who  speaks  of  this  prepar- 
ed corn  under  the  name  of  bourgoul,  expressly  mentions 
its  being  dried  in  the  sun  after  having  spoken  of  their  pre- 
paring a  whole  year's  provision  of  it  at  once.  Voy.  dans. 
Ja  Pal.  p.  200. 

OBSERVATION  XXIV. 

THE    MANNER    OF    PRESERVING    THEIR    CORN. 

Before  I  quit  this  part  of  their  food,  I  ought  to  take 
some  notice  of  the  manner  in  which  they  keep  the  corn 
they  are  spending,  which  Sandys  tells  us*  is  by  means 
of  long  vessels  of  clay,  it  being  subject  to  be  eaten  by 
worms  without  that  precaution.  This  he  observed  at 
Gaza. 

Agreeable  to  this  I  remember  Norden  tells  us  that  a 
Barbarin  of  Upper  Egypt  opened  one  of  the  great  jars,  in 
order  to  show  him  how  they  preserved  their  corn  there.f 

That  barrel  in  which  the  woman  of  Zarephath  kept 
her  corn,  of  which  she  had  only  enough  left  to  make  an 
handful  of  meal,  1  Kings  xvii.  12,  might  be  a  vessel  of 
much  the  same  kind,  and  consequently  improperly  trans- 
lated a  barrel.  It  is  certain  it  is  the  same  word,  in  the 
original,  that   is  used  for  the  vessels  of  which   Gideon's 

»P.    117". 

fVol.  ii.  p.  119.  The  MS.  C.  mentions  the  same  thing  in  a  note  on 
Bel  and  the  Dragon,  v.  iii.  where,  observing  that  the  Eastern  word  used 
tlierc  signifies  a  measure  for  water,  or  some  other  liquid,  not  for  ftour,  it 
informs  us,  that  in  the  East  they  keep  their  flour  in  pots,  jars,  &c.  not  in 
sacks  or  barrels,  on  account  of  insects. 

Dr.  Russell  says,  MS.  note,  that  "at  Aleppo  the  corn  is  preserved  in  a 
large  wooden  chest  called  amber  ;  the  grain  is  put  in  at  the  top,  and,  when 
wauled,  let  out  at  a  small  opening  or  window  at  bottom."     Edit. 

Dr.  liuchanan  informs  us,  Journey  through  the  Mysore,  lie.  vol.  i,  p.  91, 
that  in  the  Mysore  country,  the  Paddy  or  rice  in  the  husks,  is  kept  in  this 
way.  Some*,  says  he,  preserve  it,  in  large  earthen  jura  thnt  are  kept  in  the 
house ;  others  preserve  it  in  small  cylindrical  stores  which  the  potters 
make  of  clay,  and  are  c;illcd  tvoday,  the  moutli  is  covered  by  an  inverted 
pot,  and  the  Pa</(/i/ as  wanted  is  drawn  out  of  a  Jiole   at   tlie   bottom.  Bdij*. 


446  REL.VTING  TO  THEIR  DIET,  &c. 

soldiers  concealed  their  torches,  and  which  they  broke  with  a 
clashing,  terrifying  noise,  when  they  blew  witn  their  trumpets, 
and  both  circumstances  suppose  their  being  vessels  of  earth. 

It  does  not  however  follow,  from  hence,  that  they  had  these 
things  with  them  for  the  keeping  their  corn ;  it  might  be  tor 
fetching  water,  for  we  find  the  same  woi'd  is  expressue  of  the 
vessels  in  which  women  were  wont  to  fetch  water  ;*  and  no  won- 
der, since  the  same  sort  of  vessels  are  stiii  used  for  boUi  pur- 
poses. Norden  speaking  of  great  jars  for  corn,  as  I  just  now 
rem9.rked  ;  and  Dr.  Pococke  on  the  other  hand  takes  notice,  al- 
most twice  together,  of  the  women  of  that  country  carrying  wa- 
ter in  earthen  jars. 

The  four  barrels  of  water  then,  said  to  have  been  ordered  by 
Elijah  to  be  poured  on  the  Sacrifice,  I  Kings  xviii.  33,  should 
have  been  translated  four  jars.  Rebecca  most  certainly  did  not 
carry  a  barrel,  a  vessel  of  above  thirty  gallons,  upon  her  head. 

OBSERVATION   XXV. 

THE    MANNER    OF    SOWING    THEIR    CORN. 

It  may  be  proper  also  to  make  some  remarks  on  their  manner 
of  raising  corn,  of  which  they  use  so  much  for  food :  and  here  we 
may  observe,  that  oxen  and  asses  are  made  use  of  in  sowing  their 
grounds ;  and  that  some  lands  that  are  not  well  watered  are  ex- 
tremely fertile. 

Isaiah  plainly  supposes  that  oxen  and  asses  were  used  in  sowing 
their  lands,  ch.  xxxii.  20  ;  it  is  still  so  in  Syria.f  When  Dr.  Rus- 
sell gives  his  readers  an  account  of  the  manner  of  sowing  grain 
about  Aleppo,  he  says,  "  No  harrow  is  used,  but  the  ground  is 
ploughed  a  second  time  after  it  is  sown,  in  order  to  cover  the  grain ; 
in  some  places,  where  the  soil  is  a  little  sandy,  they  plough  but  once, 
and  that  is  after  sowing.  The  plough  is  so  light,  that  a  man  of  mod- 
erate strength  may  easily  carry  it  with  one  hand :  a  little  cow,  or 
at  most  two,  and  sometimes  only  an  ass,  is  sufficient  to  draw  it  in 
ploughing,  and  one  man  both  drives  and  holds  it  with  so  much  ease, 
that  he  generally  smokes  his  pipe  at  the  same  time."|  Here  we  see 
cows  and  asses  used  for  ploughing,  and  ploughing  instead  of  har- 

»  Gen.  xxiv.  14,  15,  16,  18,  &:c. 

\  Moses,  in  like  manner,  supposes  that  oxen   and  asses  were  the  animals 
used  for  ploughing,  Deut.  xxii.  10.  %  Vol.  i.  p.  73, 


RELATING  TO  THEIR  DIET,  Ut.  4 it 

rowing  for  covering  the  seeds  ;  just  as  the  Prophet  joins  sowing, 
and  the  feet  of  the  ox  and  the  ass  together. 

Dr.  Russell  also  gives  us  to  understand,  that  many  large  plains  in 
Syria,  which  have  no  water,  but  the  rain  which  falls  in  winter,  yet 
are  exceedingly  fertile.  Are  we  then  to  understand  Isaiah,  in  that 
passage,  of  the  sowing  rice,  and  of  the  very  important  qualities  of 
that  sort  of  grain,  when  he  speaks  of  their  being  blessed  who  sowed 
beside  all  waters  ?  So  Sir  J.  Chardin  understood  the  passage,  and  I 
shall  give  the  reader  his  note  on  these  words,  that  he  may  judge  for 
himself 

After  reciting  the  words  of  the  Prophet,  he  goes  on, "  This  exactly 
answers  the  manner  of  planting  rice,  for  they  sow  it  upon  the 
water  ;  and  before  sowing  it,  while  the  earth  is  covered  with  water, 
they  cause  the  ground  to  be  trodden  by  oxen,  horses,  and  asses,  who- 
go  midleg  deep,and  this  is  the  way  of  preparing  the  ground  for  sow- 
ing."* He  adds."  as  they  sow  the  rice  on  the  water,  they  transplant 
it  in  the  water."  To  this  is  joined  a  note  in  the  margin,  relating 
to  the  excellent  qualities  of  rice  ;  "  rice  has  this  good  and  particu- 
lar property^  that  it  is  good  for  all,  and  at  all  times :  for  infants  the 
day  they  ai-e  born,  and  for  the  dying."t 

OBSERVATION   XXVI. 

THE    METHOD    OF     PRESERVING    THEIR    FIGS. 

Dr.  Chandler  tells  us,|  that  some  dried  figs,  which  he  pur-* 
chased,  in  his  travels  in  Lesser  Asia,  were  strung  like  beads,  and 
that  he  found  them  extremely  good  as  well  as  cheap ;  is  it  not 
probable  then,  that  those  collections  of  figs,  which  the  Scriptures 
mention,  were  strings  of  tliis  dried  fi  uit,  rather  than  cakes  or  lumps, 
as  our  translators  render  the  original  word,||  D^VJT  debaleem  ? 

*  He  mcniions  the  same  circumstance  in  a  note  on  Amos  vi.  12;  anil  sup- 
poses the  running  on  u  rock,  is  oijposed  to  the  running  to  and  IVo  on  grounrt 
covered  four  fingers'  deep  with  ■water. 

t  This  euJogium  is  miserably  overstrained.  Rice  is  a  poor  aliment  ■when 
compared  wiih  wheat;  and  of  wliat  nse  can  rice,  or  inileed  any  thing  else,  be 
to  the  dijimr  ?  See  tlie  different  methods  of  sowing  rice  in  Egypt  and  in  the 
East  Indies  Obser.  xxxiii.  and  xxxiv.  at  the  beginning  of  the  following  vol- 
ume. F'.DIT. 

*P.  215.  II  A  marginal  note   of  the  Bishop's  Rible    is,  **  0;- 

poutwles.    So  many  figes  a?  cleave  together  like  a  cake,  arc  called  a  cake" 


448  RELATING  TO  THEIR  DIET,  &;c. 

Dried  fig-s,  when  closely  packed,  will  certainly  adhere  together, 
and  may  be  called  cakes  or  lumps  of  figs,  as  is  visible  to  everyone 
that  has  visited  our  English  shops  where  they  are  sold  ;  and  from 
thence  our  translators  seem  to  have  derived  their  ideas.  But  it 
does  not  follow  from  thence,  that  they  appear  in  the  like  form  in  the 
countries  where  they  are  actually  dried,  and  laid  up  among  their 
other  stores,  for  their  own  consumption. 

Two  circumstances  seem  to  show  that  these  ideas  are  not  exact. 
In  the  first  place,  they  seem  to  be  spoken  of  as  parcels  of  nearly 
the  same  size  :  jibigaii  carried  to  David  two  hundred  cakes  of  Jiffs, 
1  Sam.  XXV.  1 8.  What  notion  can  a  reader  form  of  the  quantity  of 
figs,  if  the  accidental  lumps  of  adhering  figs  were  meant  ?  Some 
lumps  are  ten  times,  it  may  be,  larger  than  others,  when  they  are 
taken  out  of  the  vessel  in  which  they  have  been  packed,  and  strong- 
ly squeezed  together.  A  more  determinate  notion  seems  to  have 
been  intended  to  be  conveyed  by  that  term.  So  also  when  a  lump 
of  figs  Avas  ordered  to  be  applied  to  Hezekiah's  bile,  2  Kings  xx.  7. 

A  second  thing  is,  that  when  a  part  of  such  a  paicel  is  spoken  of, 
a  word  is  used  which  signifies*  cutting- ;  but  cutting  can  by  no 
tneans  be  necessary  to  divide  a  lump  of  our  figs  into  parts.  Nothing 
is  more  easily  divided.     But  a  string  of  figs  might  require  cutting. 

The  doctor  has  said  nothing  of  the  number  of  figs  usually  put 
«n  one  string,  or  of  the  weight  of  one  of  these  strings.  It  should 
seem  they  were  but  small,  since  Abigail  carried  David  twice  as 
many  strings  of  figs  as  dried  bunches  of  grapes,  1  Sam.  xxv.  18. 

Future  travellers,  may  ascertain  these  with  so  much  precision 
as  may  satisfy  the  curious. 

I  must  however  add,  that  I  have  somewhere  met  with  an  ac- 
count, that  some  of  the  people  of  those  countries  press  their  dried 
figs  into  vessels  of  a  determinate  size,  which  must  enable  them  to 
make  their  lumps  of  figs  equal  to  each  other,  and  of  a  well  known 
bigness.  But  even  in  this  case  it  cannot  be  necessary  to  part  them 
by  cutting. 

*  nbS  Pelach.  1  Sam.  xxx.  12. 


END    OF    THE    FIRST    VOLUME. 


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